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TOUNOBD  BY  JOHN  D.  BOCKEFBLLXB 


THE  COURT  AND  THE  LONDON 

THEATRES  DURING  THE 

REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH 


A  DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED  TO  THE  FACULTY  OF  THE   GRADUATE   SCHOOL  OF  ARTS  AND 

LITERATURE  IN  CANDIDACY  FOR  THE  DEGREE  OP 

DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 

(DSFABTtfKNT    OT    XNQLISH) 


BY 

THORNTON  SHIRLEY  GRAVES 


MENASHA,  WIS. 

THE  COLLEGIATE  PRESS 

GEORGE  BANTA  PUBLISHING  00. 

1018 


f 


FOUNDED  BY  JOHN  D.  ROCKEFELLER 


THE  COURT  AND  THE  LONDON 

THEATRES  DURING  THE 

REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH 


ERRATA 

Page  25,  line  24.    For  Milton  read  Melton, 

Page  32,  line  2.    For  ''early  in  the  nineteenth  century"  read  "late 

^  in  the  eighteenth  century". 
Page  34,  line  28.    For  Howe  read  Howes. 
Page  36,  line  5.    For  Howe's  read  Howes'. 
Page  39,  line  22.    For  "four"  read  "all". 
Page  43,  lines  4  and  17.    For  Howe  read  Howes. 
Page  67,  line  7.    For  Oeorge-a  Greene  read  George-a-Greene. 
Page  69,  line  19.    For  Cross  read  Crosse. 
Page  85,  line  18.    For  Burgley  read  Burghley. 


all|?  Initifrattg  of  (fllytragn 

FOUNDED  BY  JOHN  D.  ROCKEFELLER 


THE  COURT  AND  THE  LONDON 

THEATRES  DURING  THE 

REIGN  OF  ELIZABETH 


A  DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED   TO   THE   FACULTY   OF   THE    GRADUATE    SCHOOL   OF   ARTS  AND 

LITERATURE   IN  CANDIDACY  FOR  THE   DEGREE   OF 

DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 

(DEPARTMENT    OF    ENGLISH) 


BY 

THORNTON  SHIRLEY  GRAVES 


MENASHA,  WIS. 

THE  COLLEGIATE  PRESS 

GEORGE   BANTA   PUBLISHING   CO. 

1913 


f^// 

(^^^i 


PREFACE 

Most  of  the  conclusions  in  the  following  monograph  were 
reached  in  the  fall  of  1910  and  presented  a  little  later  before  the 
seminar  in  Elizabethan  Literature  conducted  by  Professor  F,  I. 
Carpenter.  A  short  ]jimQ,  afterwards  Neuendorff's  Die  englische 
Volksbiihne  im  Zeitalter  Shakespeares  became  accessible,  thus  neces- 
sitating the  rewriting  of  the  first  part  of  my  study.  The  latter  part 
remains  substantially  as  it  was  originally  written.  Since  the  dis- 
sertation was  accepted  by  the  Department  of  English  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago,  Professor  Feuillerat  has  printed  for  the  German 
Shakespeare  Society  the  documents  proving  the  existence  of  an 
earlier  Blackfriars,  Professor  Wallace  has  brought  out  his  Evolu- 
tion of  the  English  Drama,  and  Mr.  W.  J.  Lawrence  has  published 
his  two  volumes  of  essays,  The  Elizahethan  Playhouse  and  Other 
Studies.  Very  recently  Mrs.  C.  C.  Stopes's  James  Burhage  has  ap- 
peared. I  regret  that  I  have  not  been  able  to  make  use  of  the  recent 
works  of  these  scholars ;  yet  I  do  not  see  that  the  theory  as  presented 
in  the  following  pages  is  seriously  affected  by  newly  discovered 
facts. 

To  the  earlier  published  works  of  Professor  Feuillerat  and  Mr. 
W.  J.  Lawrence,  my  indebtedness  is  large,  as  the  foot-notes  below 
reveal.  I  wish,  too,  to  acknowledge  my  indebtedness  to  my  friend 
G.  F.  Reynolds,  not  only  for  the  help  which  his  articles  have  af- 
forded me,  but  also  for  suggestions  privately  made.  It  is  a  pleasure 
to  express  here  my  thanks  to  Professors  C.  A.  Baskervill,  A.  H. 
Tolman,  and  R.  M.  Lovett,  who  kindly  read  my  dissertation  when 
it  was  in  manuscript.  To  Professor  Carpenter  I  am  obliged  for 
suggesting  to  me  the  present  study  and  advising  that  I  pursue  it 
at  a  time  when  I  would  have  turned  to  something  else.  And  finally, 
to  Professor  J.  M.  Manly  I  am  especially  indebted  for  his  criticism 
and  encouragement,  and  for  the  privilege  of  examining,  before  they 
were  made  accessible  in  Murray's  English  Dramatic  Companies,  a 
large  body  of  the  extant  records  of  theatrical  performances  in  the 
provinces. 

Durham,  N.  C. 

November  29,  1913. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction 1 

The  Structural  Elements  of  the  Elizabethan  Stage  .       .  4 

The  Inn-Yards  and  the  Early  Theatres 32 

The  Stage  at  Court  and  the  Early  Theatres  ....  50 

v/ Court  Influence  in  General 68 

Appendix.    The  "  Canopy  Stage  " 88 

Index  of  Authors  and  Titles 90 


INTRODUCTION 

Years  ago  George  Steevens  in  his  endeavor  to  prove  the  use  of 
scenes  in  Elizabethan  theatres  ended  his  argument  with  the  fol- 
lowing words : 

"To  conclude,  the  richest  and  most  expensive  scenes  had  been 
introduced  to  dress  up  those  spurious  children  of  the  Muse  called 
Masques :  nor  have  we  sufficient  reason  for  believing  that  Tragedy, 
her  legitimate  offspring,  continued  to  be  exposed  in  rags,  while  ap- 
pendages more  suitable  to  her  dignity  were  known  to  be  within  the 
reach  of  our  ancient  Managers.  Shakspeare,  Burbage,  and  Condell 
must  have  had  frequent  opportunities  of  being  acquainted  with 
the  mode  in  which  both  Masques,  Tragedies,  and  Comedies  were 
represented  in  the  inns  of  court,  the  halls  of  noblemen,  and  in  the 
palace  itself. ' '  ^ 

This,  it  seems  to  me,  is  a  thoroughly  sane  point  of  view  from 
which  to  approach  the  Elizabethan  stage.  Owing,  however,  to 
Steevens 's  unsuccessful  encounter  with  Malone  on  the  subject  of 
modern  scenes,  and  to  certain  unduly  emphasized  statements  by 
such  personages  as  Ben  Jonson  and  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  scholarship 
has  until  recently  insisted  on  considering  the  Elizabethan  regular 
and  court  stages  as  things  apart  and  unrelated,  the  one  arising  from 
an  humble  inn-yard  original  and  contenting  itself  with  pleasing  an 
uncultivated  inn-yard  taste,  the  other  springing  from  a  more  aristo- 
cratic prototype  and  holding  itself  rigidly  aloof  from  its  less  pre- 
tentious contemporary.^ 

And  even  now  when  the  blanket  and  bare  platform  which  once 
satisfied  students  as  a  background  for  Shakspere's  poetry  have 
been  generally  discarded,  there  is  still  a  tendency  on  the  part  of 
some  to  exclude  court  influence  altogether,  or  to  admit  it  only  late 
in  the  reign  of  James  I,  implying  that  the  regular  theatres  during 
the  Elizabethan  era  proper  progressed  but  little  in  equipment  and 
efficiency  of  presentation  beyond  the  pageant- wagons  which  two 
centuries  earlier  had  rolled  about  the  streets  of  England. 

But   an  explanation  of   the   equipment   and  practices  of  the 

*  Quoted  in  Malone-Boswell  Shakespeare  of  1821,  III,  106,  note. 

^  For  the  probability  of  court  influence  in  staging,  see  Reynolds,  Mod.  PhU.  (1905), 
p.  73;  Schelling,  Eliz.  Drama,  I,  107;  Neuendorflf,  Tolksbiihne,  passim;  and  especially 
Feuillerat,  Le  Bureau  dea  Meiiiu  Plaisirs,  pp.  81-86. 


2      THE   COURT   AND   THEATRES   DURING   THE   REIGN   OP   ELIZABETH 

Shaksperian  Theatre  is  not  to  be  sought  for  in  mystery  plays.  Nor 
are  they  to  be  accounted  for  by  accepting  satire  at  its  face  value 
while  ignoring  or  explaining  away  statements  of  a  contrary  nature ; 
or  by  maintaining  that  the  early  London  playhouse  was  exclusively 
popular  in  origin  and  method,  a  folk  institution,  as  it  were,  where 
noise  and  buffoonery,  swordplay  and  oratory,  were  the  only  es- 
sentials for  a  successful  two  hours'  traffic  of  the  stage. 

Such  a  view  is  not  only  eminently  unfair  to  the  professional 
actors  and  the  Elizabethan  audiences,  but  is  out  of  keeping  with  the 
whole  spirit  of  the  age.  It  fails  to  take  into  proper  consideration 
the  prominence  in  theatrical  matters  of  a  court  which  from  the  time 
of  Henry  VIII  had  been  accustomed  to  entertainments  as  elaborate 
and  impressive  as  sixteenth  century  England  could  devise;  and  it 
neglects  to  recognize  the  various  opportunities  for  court  influence 
upon  the  London  stages  long  before  the  reign  of  James,  the  numer- 
ous incentives  for  such  an  influence,  the  open-mindedness  of  Eliza- 
bethans, and  the  business  sense  possessed  by  such  managers  as  Bur- 
bage  and  Henslowe. 

The  object  of  this  study,  therefore,  is  to  approach  the  London 
theatres  from  an  entirely  different  point  of  view,  the  court,  and 
to  point  out  the  probability  of  influence  prior  to  1603.  Features 
of  similarity  and  possible  court  influence  are,  I  believe,  to  be  found 
in  the  general  stage  structure  of  the  earlier  theatres,  in  certain 
principles  and  practices  of  staging,  in  various  theatrical  devices 
employed  for  realistic  and  spectacular  effects,  and  in  the  general 
nature  of  the  properties  and  costumes  employed  in  public  per- 
formances during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth. 

Such  a  study,  like  all  studies  of  the  Elizabethan  stage,  is  beset 
with  difficulties  and  uncertainties.  In  most  respects  conclusive  re- 
sults are  as  yet  impossible;  theories  are  incapable  of  demonstra- 
tion to  the  satisfaction  of  all.  Students  of  the  stage  are  at  most 
dealing  with  probabilities.  Owing,  however,  to  the  labors  especially 
of  Feuillerat  and  Reyher,  we  are  able  to  stand  on  comparatively 
firm  ground  in  our  discussion  of  the  methods  employed  at  court  per- 
formances ;  and  at  court,  it  must  always  be  remembered,  Shakspere 
and  his  fellows  acted  dramas  which  were  also  presented  at  the 
public  theatres.  It  is  hoped,  then,  that  a  study  from  this  point  of 
view,  unsatisfactory  as  it  necessarily  is,  may  contribute  toward  the 


INTRODUCTION  3 

solution  of  certain  problems  which  at  present  confront  the  stu- 
dents of  the  Elizabethan  theatre. 

In  undertaking  such  a  study,  it  has  seemed  advisable  to  divide 
the  discussion  into  four  parts.  The  first  is  devoted  to  a  discussion 
of  the  structural  elements  of  the  Elizabethan  theatre  with  especial 
reference  to  the  recent  theory  advanced  by  Neuendorff  in  so  far  as 
it  conflicts  with  the  theory  of  the  present  writer;  the  second  con- 
cerns itself  with  the  inn-yard  and  its  relationship  to  the  first  Lon- 
don playhouses;  the  third  attempts  to  establish  the  probability  of 
court  influence  in  general  stage  structure  at  the  early  public  thea- 
tres; and  the  fourth  deals  in  a  more  general  way  with  the  indica- 
tions of  court  influence  in  the  methods  of  presenting  dramas  at 
the  regular  playhouses  during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth. 


4      THE    COURT   AND   THEATRES    DURING   THE    REIGN   OP    ELIZABETH 


I.  THE  STRUCTURAL  ELEMENTS  OF  THE  ELIZABETHAN 

STAGE 

Notwithstanding  the  great  diversity  of  opinion  regarding  cer- 
tain features  and  practices  of  the  Elizabethan  playhouse,  there  is 
now  general  agreement  as  to  the  existence  of  a  balcony  or  upper 
stage  in  all  the  theatres  of  Shakspere's  time.  It  is  generally  be- 
lieved, too,  that  beneath  this  upper  stage  was  suspended  in  most  of 
the  theatres  of  the  period  a  curtain  flanked  on  each  side  by  a  door 
opening  upon  the  outer  stage.  Behind  these  doors,  it  is  thought, 
were  the  property  and  dressing  rooms,  the  whole  back  portion  of 
the  stage  being  often  called  the  "ty ring-house". 

This,  I  believe,  was  in  its  essential  elements  the  regular  form  of 
,the  Elizabethan  stage  from  the  time  of  its  construction  in  1576. 
Perhaps  when  managers  and  actors  realized  more  and  more  the  pos- 
sibilities of  the  "place  behind  the  stage"  or  "alcove"  or  the  "can- 
opy",^ they  enlarged  it;  perhaps  the  oblique  doors  are  a  later 
touch;  but  that  the  general  plan  of  two  side  doors  with  a  middle 
entrance  through  rear  stage  and  curtains  was  in  operation  from 
the  beginning,  and  that  it  was  suggested  by  the  Court  stage  or 
stages  seems  highly  probable. 

Of  course  this  form  of  stage  cannot  be  actually  proved  for  the 
Theatre  and  Curtain.  It  has  hardly  been  proved  at  the  Rose,  al- 
though we  know  with  respect  to  this  particular  playhouse  that  it 
had  a  balcony  and  a  curtain,  three  entrances,  and  behind  the  stage 
a  place  which  was  presumably  larger  than  the  space  concealed  by 
a  single  door.  The  existence  of  a  similar  type  of  stage  can,  I  be- 
lieve, be  established  as  probable  at  the  two  earlier  theatres.  To 
remove  certain  possible  objections  to  such  an  idea  is  the  chief  ob- 
ject of  the  first  part  of  this  study.  The  probable  court  origin  of 
such  a  type  of  stage  will  receive  treatment  in  a  later  part. 

As  any  such  theory  is  in  certain  respects  radically  opposed  to 
that  offered  by  Neuendorff  in  his  recent  book  Die  englische  Volks- 
hiihne,  it  is  fitting  at  this  point  to  give  a  criticism  of  those  features 
of  his  study  which  conflict  with  the  probability  of  such  a  theory. 
Basing  his  conclusions  on  what  he  calls  direct  and  indirect  sources 

'  For  a  distinction  between  the   "alcove"   and   "canopy"   see  below  and   Appendix  I. 


THE   STRUCTURAL   ELEMENTS   OP   THE   ELIZABETHAN   STAGE  5 

of  evidence,  he  finds  three  main  types  of  stage  in  use  during  the 
period  1576-1642.  The  first  is  a  stage  without  a  curtain  and  with 
an  undivided  lower  stage.  This,  he  thinks,  is  the  most  primitive 
type,  the  first  experiment  in  stage  building.  It  is  represented  in 
the  Red  Bull  and  perhaps  in  the  Roxana  -  pictures.  The  second 
type  is  a  lower  stage  lying  entirely  before  the  balcony,  divided  into 
two  parts  by  pillars,  and  approached  by  two  (or  three)  doors  at 
the  rear.  The  Swan  picture  is  representative  here.  This,  I  take  it, 
is  the  second  experiment.  The  third  type,  or  fully  developed  stage, 
is  that  shown  in  the  Messalina  picture,  the  ''canopy  stage",  as  I 
shall  term  it ;  that  is,  a  structure  where  the  rear  stage  consists  of  a 
recess  (A  in  the  figure  below)  separated  from  the  front  stage  (B) 
by  a  curtain  (aa')  and  situated  beneath  a  balcony,  or  upper  stage, 
projected  a  few  feet  beyond  the  line  of  the  side  entrances  (x  and  y) 
and  supported  at  the  front  by  two  pillars  (a  and  a'),  which  pillars 
are  not  to  be  confused  with  the  larger  ones  (b  and  b')  supporting 
the  shadow  over  the  front  stage. 


D- 


B 


Db 


-n 


vn 


Along  with  these  various  experiments  in  stage  building  he  traces 
a  more  or  less  regular  development  in  the  method  of  staging.  The 
steps  in  this  development  should  perhaps  be  given  in  his  own 
words:  "Blicken  wir  zunachst  zuriick:  wir  batten  gesehen,  dass 
ein  einheitliches  Bild  von  der  englischen  Biihne  nicht  zu  erhalten 
war.  Zur  Shakespeare-Zeit  stehen  wir  noch  in  den  Anfangen  des 
Theaterwesens,  denn  greifbare  Versuche  konnten  erst  mit  dem  Bau 

*  He  apparently  considers  the  Curtain  and  Theatre  to  be  curtainless  (p.  32). 
Whether  he  would  regard  either  as  being  so  primitive  as  the  stage  shown  in  the  Red 
Bull  picture,    I  am  unable  to   say. 


6      THE   COURT   AND  THEATRES  DURING  THE   EEIGN   OF  ELIZABETH 

fester  Theater  gemacht  werden.  Und  so  wurde  zweifellos  experi- 
mentiert  —  eine  Reihe  von  Biihnenformeii  liess  sich  nachweisen, 
Bulmenformen,  die  eine  Entwicklung  darstellen. 

"Hand  in  Hand  mit  dem  Fortschritt  im  Ban  der  Biihnen  ging 
eine  Entwicklung  in  der  Behandlung  des  Ortes.  Diese  Entwick- 
lung vollzog  sich  in  drei  Stufen,  die  zwar  durchaus  nicht  streng  zu 
scheiden  sind,  aber  in  dem  Sinn  Geltung  haben,  dass  die  erste  die  am 
friiliesten  verschwindende  ist  (abgesehen  von  wenigen  Resten),  die 
zweite  sich  liinger  neben  der  dritten  halt,  die  dritte  aber  die  herr- 
schende  wird.  Die  Einteilung  in  Stufen  ist  also  nicht  nach  dem 
Auftreten,  sondern  nach  dem  Verschwinden,  oder  doch  wenigstens 
nach  dem  Zuriickgehen,  vorgenommen. 

"Die  erste  Stufe  ist  darnach  die  gleichzeitige  Darstellung  meh- 
rerer  Orte  auf  der  Biihne.  Die  zweite  ist  die  Fiktion  mehrerer  Orte 
nacheinander  innerhalb  derselben  Szene.  Die  dritte  Stufe  ist  erst 
die  einer  realen  Ortsbehandlung :  entweder  Verlegung  verschie- 
dener  Ortlichkeiten  auf  verschiedene  Biihnenfelder  oder  aber  Be- 
schrankung  einer  Szenenhandlung  auf  einen  Ort"  (pp.  202-3). 

Now  let  us  pause  to  determine  the  significance  of  Neuendorff's 
theory  in  its  relationship  to  the  theory  outlined  above.  Neuen- 
dorf? is  doubtless  right  in  supposing  that  there  was  a  progress  in 
the  method  of  staging.  My  discussion  of  the  nature  and  cause  of 
this  development  will  be  found  in  a  later  section.  His  fundamental 
error,  it  seems  to  me,  lies  in  his  contention  that  this  development 
went  hand  in  hand  with  various  experiments  in  stage  construc- 
tion. Indispensable  for  any  such  theory  is,  not  only  the  construc- 
tion of  numerous  radically  different  types  of  stage  between  the 
years  1576  and  1642,  but  also  the  widespread  existence  of  a  very 
primitive  method  of  staging  on  an  equally  primitive  form  of  stage. 
To  secure  these  necessary  primitive  conditions,  he  sometimes  resorts 
to  late  plays,  notably  Suckling's  Aglaura,  for  evidence;  and  he 
uses  a  very  late  picture,  that  of  the  Red  Bull,  to  illustrate  his  most 
primitive  type  of  stage,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  this  picture  is  of 
little  or  no  value  in  such  a  discussion.^  He  has  great  faith  in  the 
accuracy  of  the  DeWitt  drawing  of  the  Swan,  and  hence  uses  it  as 
his  chief  evidence  in  arguing  for  the  prevalence  of  the  vorhang- 

•  Albright,  Shakesperian  Stage,  pp.  40-43;  Lawrence,  Eiig.  Studien,  XXXIX,  p.  404; 
ReynoldB,  Some  Principleg,  I,  pp.   12-13. 


THE   STRUCTURAL   ELEMENTS   OF   THE   ELIZABETBLAJST   STAGE  7 

lose  Bilhne.  He  admits  curtains  at  the  Rose  and  thinks  that  it 
belongs  to  the  Messalina  or  fully  developed  type  of  stage.  He  ad- 
mits this,  let  me  repeat,  yet  he  does  not  offer  a  satisfactory  reason 
why  the  Swan,  as  represented  in  the  drawing,  has  neither  curtains 
nor  any  place  for  them  in  spite  of  their  earlier  existence  at  the 
Rose,*  and  the  significance  of  such  conveniences  in  staging;  thus 
advancing  what  seems  to  me,  I  must  confess,  the  inconceivable  idea 
that  even  after  the  curtained  stage,  the  fully  developed  or  ' '  canopy 
stage",  was  in  existence,  the  vorhanglose  Biihne  continued  to  be 
constructed  and  used.  He  throws  doubt  on  certain  e\ddence  point- 
ing to  curtains  at  the  Blackfriars ;  he  is  skeptical  regarding  the  ex- 
istence of  stage  curtains  at  the  Globe  and  Fortune;  and  on  page 
29  he  writes  that  these  two  theatres,  together  with  the  Swan  and 
Hope,  apparently  belong  to  the  same  general  type  of  stage.  He 
says  further  (p.  43)  :  "Schon  jetzt  aber  erkennen  wir,  dass  die 
vorhanglose  Bilhne  —  drei  von  den  iiberlieferten  Bildern  stellen 
eine  solche  dar — eine  viel  grossere  Verhreitung  in  der  Shakespeare- 
Zeit  hatte,  als  wir  im  allgemeinen  annehmen".  On  this  widespread 
curtainless  stage,  he  asserts,  the  functions  and  effects  of  curtains 
were  secured  by  the  use  of  canopies,  curtained  beds,  thrones  and 
stage  doors. 

Neuendorff's  theory,  then;  is  built  up  on  the  assumption  that 
the  vorhanglose  Biihne  was  a  common  institution  in  sixteenth  cen- 
tury England.  And  it  is  just  here  that  his  theory  conflicts  vitally 
with  the  one  set  forth  in  the  present  study;  for  if  it  can  be  estab- 
lished that  the  vorhanglose  Biihne,  a  more  primitive  form  of  stage 
than  that  at  the  Rose,  was  a  widespread  type  in  the  days  of  Shak- 
spere,  then  there  are  good  a  priori  reasons  for  believing  that  the 
two  earliest  playhouses — the  Theatre  and  the  Curtain — conformed 
to  this  type  rather  than  to  that  of  the  Rose.  The  real  question  at 
issue  therefore  is,  Was  the  vorhanglose  Biihne  with  its  various 
modifications  a  common  form  of  stage  during  the  Elizabethan 
period  ? 

Now  personally  I  do  not  believe  that  there  was  ever  such  a  thing 
as  a  vorhanglose  Biihne  among  the  regular  London  theatres  from 
1576  to  1642.    That  many  plays  could  be,  and  were,  staged  without 

*  The  early  Blackfriars,  ■which  was  perhaps  the  same  type  of  stage  as  that  at  the 
Rose,  does  not  enter  into  the  discussion  for  the  reason  that  the  documents  proving  its 
existence  were  accessible  too  late  to  be  of  service  in  the  preparation  of  my  dissertation. 


u-^ 


8      THE   COURT   AND   THEATRES   DURING   THE   REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH 

the  use  of  a  curtain  is  undoubtedly  true,  but  this  has  little  or 
nothing  to  do  with  the  point  under  discussion.  That  rear  stage 
scenes  are  comparatively  rare  is  also  quite  true — it  is  only  natural 
that  they  should  be  so — and  that  doors  were  sometimes  used  to 
represent  shops  or  even  studies  may  be  admitted  without  affecting 
the  question  at  issue. 

In  favor  of  the  general  use  of  stage  curtains  may  be  urged  the 
theatrical  instinct  for  such  conveniences,  the  common  sense  of  Eliza- 
bethan theatrical  people,  and  the  existence  of  curtains  in  theatrical 
entertainments  from  the  earliest  times.  They  may  not  have  been 
common  on  the  pageant  wagons  of  the  cyclic  mystery  plays,  but  it 
is  certain  that  they  were  used  in  stationary  performances  in 
England^  as  w^ell  as  in  France.^ 

At  court  entertainments  curtains  were  used  at  least  as  early  as 
the  time  of  Henry  VIII.  In  1511,  for  instance,  a  curtain  sudden- 
ly falling  at  one  end  of  the  hall  rcA'^ealed  a  gorgeous  pageant.^  In 
1518,  "immediately  after  a  curtain  had  been  lowered,  a  handsome 
triumphal  car  appeared,  with  a  castle  and  a  rock,  all  green  within 
and  gilded.  Within  the  rock  was  a  cave  all  gilded,  the  gates  being 
of  wood  with  silk  curtains,  like  a  recess ;  and  within  the  cave  were 
nine  very  handsome  damsels  with  wax  candles  in  their  hands,  all 
dressed  alike,  looking  through  the  veil,  like  radiant  goddesses".^ 
At  Greenwich,  in  1527,  there  fell  at  the  extremity  of  the  hall  "a 
painted  canvas  [curtain],  from  an  aperture  in  which  was  seen  a 
most  verdant  cave".^  In  the  same  year  at  York  Place  a  curtain  fell, 
revealing  Venus  surrounded  by  six  maidens  seated  on  a  sort  of 
scaffold.^**  Gibson's  accounts  for  this  year  contain  "ironwork  to 
hang  the  curtains  with,  2s.",  "4  doz.  curtain  rings,  4d. ",  "a  whole 
piece  of  cord  to  draw  the  curtains,  14d. ' '  ^^  Not  very  clear  is  the 
direction  in  Godly  Queen  Hester  (1.  140),  which  Greg  and  Bang 
think  was  acted  at  Court  between  1525  and  1529 :  "Here  the  Kynge 

"Coventry  Plays,  PuU.  Shakespeare  Soc,  II,   pp.  261,   303. 

"  Creizenach,  I,  166;  Cohen,  La  Mise  en  Seine  dans  le  Theatre  Beligieux  Frangais, 
pp.    144-146. 

'  Hall,   Chronicle,  p.  518. 

^Cal.  State  Papers,   Venetian,   15091519,  p.  466. 

oibid.,  1527-33,  p.  60. 

w/btd.,   p.    2;    cf.   Hall,   p.    723. 

"  Brewer,  Letters  and  Papers  of  Henry   VIII,  IV,   pp.    1391,    1604. 


THE   STRUCTURAL   ELEMENTS   OP   THE   ELIZABETHAN   STAGE  9 

entry  the  travers  &  Aman  goeth  out".    Even  more  vague  is  the  rope 
used  for  the  "travas"  in  the  hall  at  Greenwich  in  1511.^- 

Curtains  at  court  during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  were  regular 
features  at  performances.  The  only  question  is  whether  front  cur- 
tains were  employed.'^  Universities  and  the  Inns  of  Court  recog- 
nized the  value  of  curtains.  In  Legge's  Bicardus  Tertius,  acted  at 
Cambridge  in  1579,  occurs  the  direction:  "a  curtaine  being  drawne, 
let  the  queene  appeare  in  ye  sanctuary,  her  5  daughters  and  maydes 
about  her,  sittinge  on  packs,  fardells,  chests,  cofers.  The  queene 
sitting  on  ye  ground  with  fardells  about  lier".^*  At  Gray's  Inn 
on  Jan.  3,  1594,  "at  the  side  of  the  hall,  behind  a  curtain,  was 
erected  an  altar  to  the  goddess  of  amity ' ',  etc.     At  the  conclusion 

"  Brewer,   Letters   and   Papers,   II,   p.    1497. 

1^  Corbin  (Atlantic  Monthly,  1906,  p.  380)  says  that  front  curtains  were  undoubtedly 
used  at  Court,  citing  as  his  evidence  the  entry  in  the  Revels  Accounts  for  1573-4, 
"John  Rosse,  for  poles  and  shyvers  for  draift  of  curtins  before  revel  [mistake  for 
'senat']  house,  25s.",  and  the  entry  for  1581  to  the  effect  that  "  'Pompey's  Senate  House' 
had  eight  ells  of  double  sarcenet  for  curtains."  These  entries  do  not  prove  front  cur- 
tains. Likewise  Professor  Baker  {Development  of  Sh.,  pp.  84-5)  asserts  that  "front 
curtains"  can  be  "perfectly  established  for  performance  at  Court".  That  front  curtains 
were  used  at  court  plays  is  undoubtedly  true,  but  the  entries  on  pages  85,  86,  90  of 
Cunningham's  Accounts  of  the  Bevels,  cited  by  Professor  Baker,  do  not  necessarily  point 
to  them.  More  convincing  is  the  entry  to  the  effect  that  "a  pastorall  of  phillyda  & 
Choryn"  employed  "one  greate  curteyne"  together  with  "one  mountayne  and  one  great 
cloth  of  canvas"  (Feuillerat,  Doc,  p.  365).  Front  curtains  at  court,  however,  were  not 
employed  to  conceal  the  shifting  of  properties,  as  Professor  Baker  evidently  believes, 
but  were  opened  at  the  beginning  of  the  play  and  left  open  until  the  end  when  they  were 
again  closed,  a  practice  corresponding  to  the  operation  of  the  curtains  in  the  Stuart 
masques  (Lawrence,  Eng.  Illustrated  Magazine,  Vol.  30,  p.  181),  or  the  raising  of  the 
curtain  at  the  beginning  of  a  play  on  the  Roman  stage  and  lowering  it  at  the  conclusion. 
Their  purpose  was  to  conceal  the  stage  until  the  play  was  begun,  when  the  elaborate 
setting  was  suddenly  revealed  to  the  audience,  just  as  the  curtain  which  suddenly  fell  in 
1511  revealed  with  an  element  of  surprise  the  splendid  pageant  which  moved  into  the 
hall.  The  sudden  revelation  of  elaborate  scenery  by  the  drawing  of  a  curtain  was  com- 
mon in  the  later  masques  (Reyher,  Les  Masques  Anglais,  pp.  356-7).  A  similar  device 
at  an  early  date  was  the  casting  aside  by  masquers  of  their  long  loose  gowns,  thus 
startling  the  spectators  with  the  splendor  of  the  costumes  beneath  them.  (Ibid.,  pp. 
411-412). 

The  curtain  which  opened  at  the  beginning  of  the  entertainment  at  Gray's  Inn  on 
Jan.  3,  1594,  and  which  at  the  conclusion  was  "drawn  as  it  was  at  first",  is  an  illustra- 
tion of  this  practice.  The  words  of  Julio  at  the  end  of  Tancred  and  Gismunda,  "Now 
draw  the  curtains  for  our  scene  is  done",  probably  refer  to  the  same  practice ;  while 
the  direction  at  the  beginning  of  Marlowe  and  Nash's  Queen  Dido,  "Here  the  curtaines 
draw,  there  is  discovered  Jupiter  dandling  Ganimed  upon  his  knee,  and  Mercury  lying 
asleepe",  no  doubt  refers  to  the  drawing  of  the  large  front  curtain,  thus  revealing  the 
entire  setting  of  the  play — a  "city",  the  palace  of  Dido,  and  a  wood.  It  is  possible,  too, 
that  the  well-known  direction  at  the  beginning  of  David  and  Bethsahe,  where  the  pro- 
logue draws  a  curtain  and  discovers  Bethsabe  bathing  and  David  sitting  above  watching 
her,  is  a  vestige  of  a  court  performance  of  this  particular  play.  Possibly  the  same  is 
also  true  of  The  Sun's  Darling  and  The  Whore  of  Babylon. 

"  Hazlitt,  Shakespeare's  Library,  II,  pt.  ii,  p.   145. 


y 


10    THE    COURT   AND   THEATRES    DURING   THE   REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH 

of  the  performance,  "with  sweet  and  pleasant  melody,  the  curtain 
was  drawn  as  it  was  at  first  ".^° 

Curtains  were  used  on  the  pageants  drawn  into  the  halls  of  the 
time.  One  case  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII  has  already  been  cited. 
And  the  *'Rocke,  or  hill  ffor  the  ix  musses  to  Singe  uppone  with  a 
vayne  of  Sarsnett  Drawen  upp  and  downe  before  them",  men- 
tioned in  1564  in  connection  with  a  "maske  of  hunters"  and  "a 
play  maid  by  Sir  Percyval  hartes  Sones",^^  was  perhaps  a  movable 
structure.  Whether  curtains  were  used  in  the  outdoor  city  pageants 
of  the  time,  I  do  not  know,  but  it  is  certain  that  at  no  late  time  they 
were  used  for  the  purposes  of  surprise  and  symbolism.  When 
James  I  entered  London,  one  of  the  devices  was  got  up  by  the  Dutch. 
Above  the  "Heart  of  the  Trophee"  was  a  "spacious  square  roome, 
left  open,  silke  curtaines  drawne  before  it :  which  upon  the  ap- 
proch  of  his  Majestic  being  put  by.  Seventeen  yong  Damsels,  all 
of  them  sumptuously  adorned  after  their  countrey  fashion,  sate  as 
it  were  in  so  many  chaires  of  state  ".^''  A  curtain  painted  like  a 
cloud  was  similarly  used  in  Jonson's  device  at  Fenchurch  on  the 
same  occasion.^* 

Curtains,  whatever  may  have  been  their  function,  are  not  un- 
heard of  in  public  performances  as  early  as  cir.  1530.  This  is 
brought  out  in  the  Walton-Rastell  lawsuit,^^  where  among  the  play- 
ing parcels  confessed  by  Walton  are  "Two  curtains,  of  green  and 
yellow  sarcenet".  And  curtains  of  green  and  yellow  sarcenet,  it 
may  be  noted,  remind  one  of  the  striped  curtain  which,  according 
to  George  Steevens,  adorned  the  sign  of  the  Curtain  theatre.^" 

Such  references  as  these,  to  be  sure,  do  not  prove  an  "alcove" 
at  the  Theatre  or  Curtain,  but  they  do  argue,  it  seems  to  me,  against 
the  supposition  that  experienced  theatrical  people  when  they  un- 
dertook to  construct  permanent  theatres  would  deliberately  erect 
stages  on  which  such  theatrical  commonplaces  and  conveniences 
were  impossible  or  practically  useless,  platforms  on  which  the  ef- 
fects ordinarily  secured  by  curtains  were  more  or  less  acceptably 
secured  by  the  use  of  stage  doors,  canopies,  curtained  thrones  and 

^'^  Oesta  Orayorum    (Nichols,   Prog,   of  EKz.,   II,  pp.    18-19). 

"  Feuillerat,  Doc.   of  Bevels,  p.  117. 

"  Dekker's  account  of  entry  of  Jas.,   Nichols,  Prog,   of  Jas.,  I,   349. 

"/bid.,  pp.   383-84. 

"Pollard,  Fifteenth  Century  Prose  and  Verse,  p.  313. 

20  Collier,  Hist.  Eng.  Dram.  Lit.,  Ill,  86. 


THE   STRUCTURAL   ELEMENTS  OP   THE   ELIZABETHAN   STAGE         11 

beds.  That  such  makeshifts  were  resorted  to  on  improvised  stages 
or  in  provincial  tours  I  am  willing  to  admit,  but  that  they  were 
ever  used  in  the  regular  London  theatres  because  a  stage  curtain 
was  lacking,  I  must  as  yet  refuse  to  believe.  Neuendorff  himself 
was  acquainted  with  the  early  use  of  curtains  in  English  theatricals 
at  court  and  elsewhere,  but  he  does  not  give  such  a  fact  the  im- 
portance that  it  deserves.  The  proof  of  a  curtain  at  every  London 
theatre  for  every  year  of  its  existence  is  probably  impossible,  but 
such  is  entirely  unnecessary  to  establish  beyond  all  reasonable 
doubt  the  general  employment  of  a  theatrical  commonplace. 

That  canopies  above  beds,  canopies  above  thrones,  canopies  to 
be  borne  above  actors  were  all  used  in  the  London  theatres  is  cer- 
tainly true,  but  they  were  not  used  as  makeshifts  for  stage  cur- 
tains. 

As  a  result  of  his  faith  in  the  DeWitt  sketch,  Neuendorff  goes 
to  unnecessary  trouble  in  explaining  how  Elizabethans  overcame 
the  difficulties  necessitated  by  a  vorhanglose  Buhne.  The  stage 
direction  in  Eastivard  Hoe,  I,  1,  "At  the  middle  door  enter  Gold- 
ing,  discovering  a  goldsmith's  shop  and  walking  short  turns  before 
it",  certainly  seems  to  mean,  as  Reynolds  pointed  out,"  that  Gold- 
ing  comes  in  at  the  door  at  the  back  of  the  rear  stage  and  draws  the 
stage  curtain.  Neuendorff,^-  however,  asserts  that  the  shop  could 
be  discovered  by  opening  a  stage  door.  Of  course  this  is  true, 
provided  the  doors  on  the  Elizabethan  stage  were  very  large  and 
swung  out  upon  the  stage  instead  of  swinging  back  into  the  tiring- 
house,  and  thus  interfering  with  properties  on  the  rear  stage,  but 
why  suppose  any  such  process,  when  the  play  was  presented  at 
Blackfriars  where  the  existence  of  curtains  can  be  abundantly 
shown? 

Again,  of  the  direction  in  Henry  VIII,  II,  2,  ' '  Exit  Lord  Cham- 
berlain; and  the  King  draws  the  curtain  and  sits  reading  pensive- 
ly", Neuendorff  ^^  says:  ''Wie  konnen  wir  sonst  erklaren,  dass  der 
Konig  selbst  den  Vorhang  zieht,  als  durch  die  einfache  Annahme, 
er  sitzt  auf  dem  state,  zunachst  von  dem  geschlossenen  Vorhang 
dieses  Thronsitzes  verborgen,  wie  das  in  anderen  Fallen  sicher 

^  Some  Principles,  I,    19. 

"  VolJcebiihne,  p.  144. 

*  Ibid.,  pp.  76-7.  -  , 


12   THE   COURT   AND   THEATRES   DURING   THE   REIGN   OF    ELIZABETH 

belegt  ist".  There  is  no  difficulty  here.  The  direction  may  well 
mean  that  the  king  drew  the  curtains  [before  the  alcove]  and 
then  sat  reading  pensively.  Or  he  could  while  sitting  have 
draMTi  the  stage  curtains  practically  as  easily  as  the  curtain  before 
a  throne.  The  operation  is  no  more  complex  than  are  others  called 
for  in  stage  directions.  Bobadilla,  for  example,  in  Every  Man  in 
his  Humor  (1.  420),  "discovers  himself  on  a  bench";  and  Laver- 
dure  in  What  You  Will,  II,  i,  "draws  the  curtains,  sitting  on  his 
bed,  apparalling  himself;  his  trunke  of  apparaile  standing  by  him". 

While  canopies  were  used,  still  there  is  a  distinction  to  be  made 
between  a  canopy  and  the  canopy  of  Percy's  Faery  Pastorall  and 
Marston's  Sophinisba.  What  could  be  a  more  appropriate  term 
for  the  rear  stage  than  ' '  Canopie ' '  ?  The  author  of  the  stage  direc- 
tion preceding  Greene's  Alphonsus,  IV,  i,  was  content  to  call  it  the 
"place  behind  the  stage".  Not  so  with  Percy;  hence  he  asserts 
that  over  this  place  behind  the  stage,  the  "Canopie",  was  to  be 
written  "Faery  Chappell".  The  fact  that  he  was  thinking  of  a 
permanent  part  of  the  stage  and  not  an  ordinary  canopy  is  revealed 
by  considering  the  word  "Canopie"  in  connection  with  what  pre- 
cedes: "Highest,  aloft,  and  on  the  Top  of  the  Musick  Tree  the 
Title  The  Faery  Pastorall,  Beneath  him  pind  on  Post  of  the 
Tree  The  Scene  Eluida  Forrest.  Lowest  of  all  ouer  the  Canopie 
NAnAITBOAAION  or  Faery  Chappell".  The  "Musick  Tree" 
and  "Post  of  the  Tree",  then,  were  directly  above  the  "Canopie". 

There  is  only  one  circumstance  which  in  any  way  implies  that 
a  separate  structure  was  employed  for  the  chapel.  On  page  149 
occurs  the  direction:  "Mercury  entring  by  the  Midde  doore  wafted 
them  back  by  the  doore  they  came  in".  On  page  165  we  find  the 
direction:  "They  enterd  at  severall  doores  Learchus  at  the  Midde 
doore". 

Says  Neuendorff  in  his  endeavor  to  prove  a  curtainless  stage 
(p.  75)  :  "Dass  hier  nun  sicherlich  nicht  mit  der  Hinterbiihne  zu 
rechnen  ist,  zeigt  III,  5  und  IV,  8,  in  denen  Personen  durch  die 
Midde  doore  auftreten.  Diese  Tiir  hatte  auf  einer  Biihne  mit  Vor- 
hang  nur  zu  der  Hinterbiihne  fiihren  konnen — wo  ware  sonst  Platz 
f iir  sie  ?  — ,  wer  also  durch  die  Mitteltiir  hereintrat,  ware  von  der 
Hinterbiihne  gekommen,  d.  h.  aus  der  Kapelle.  So  kann  der  als 
Faery  Chappel  festgelegte  Raum  nicht  auf  der  Hinterbiihne,  deren 


THE   STRUCTURAL   ELEMENTS   OF   THE   ELIZABETHAN   STA®E         13 

Existenz  in  diesem  Falle  damit  iiberhaupt  vemeint  werden  muss, 
gelegen  haben". 

I  fail  to  see  the  force  of  any  such  argument.  In  the  first  place, 
there  is  no  reason  why  the  characters  should  not  have  entered 
through  the  chapel.  In  the  second  place,  the  mention  of  a  "midde 
doore"  instead  of  midst,  especially  by  so  loose  a  thinker  as  the 
gentleman  who  wrote  at  Wolves  Hill  as  his  Parnassus,  does  not  dis- 
prove a  curtain  before  the  rear  stage.  Plays,  for  example,  pub- 
lished at  approximately  the  same  date  and  written  for  the  same 
theatre  call  for  a  middle  door  and  a  curtain.^*  In  the  third  place, 
there  is  some  evidence  that  this  very  drama  calls  for  a  curtain  be- 
fore the  "Canopie",  or  rear  stage,  in  which  characters  and  a  ban- 
quet are  shut  later  in  the  play.  The  scene  is  a  forest.  Yet  arras 
are  referred  to  on  page  179  where  we  find  the  direction :  "  He  tooke 
from  behind  the  Arras  a  Peck  of  goodly  Acornes  pilld".  *' Arras" 
used  in  the  sense  of  curtains  is  frequent ;  and  it  is  rather  difficult  to 
see  why  arras  should  be  referred  to  in  a  play  calling  for  three 
doors  and  a  forest  setting,  unless  the  author  had  in  mind  the  regular 
curtain  (arras)  before  the  rear  stage. 

This  being  true,  probably  the  arras  from  behind  which  the 
goodly  acorns  were  taken  were  closed  when  Mercury  and  Learchus 
entered  by  the  rear  door,  and  as  a  result  they  were  not  conceived 
as  entering  from  the  chapel.  Or  perhaps  the  arras  were  open; 
hence- the  author  wrote  that  the  characters  entered  by  the  "midde 
doore"  instead  of  "midst".  Or  it  is  possible  that  Elizabethans, 
like  the  dramatists  of  the  Restoration,  occasionally  referred  to  the 
opening  of  the  rear  stage  itself  as  a  door,^^  although  it  was  larger 

^Percy's  play  is  itself  an  illustration.  It  was  written  in  1603  for  Paul's;  yet 
Antonio's  Revenge,  V,  2,  and  Blurt,  Master  Constable,  II,  2,  both  published  in  1602  ai 
sundry  times  acted  by  the  Children  of  Paul's,  demand  a  stage  curtain.  Eastward  Hoe, 
cited  above,  calls  for  three  doors  at  the  Blackfriars  where  a  stage  curtain  was  certainly 
employed.  The  prologue  to  the  Four  Prentices  of  London  (pub.  1615  as  acted  at  the 
Red  Bull)  has  the  direction,  "Enter  three  in  blacke  clokes,  at  three  doores";  yet  Dekker's 
If  This  Be  Not  a  Good  Play  (pub.  1612  as  acted  at  the  same  house)  calls  for  a  rear 
stage  and  curtains.  The  Brazen  Ape  (pub.  1613,  and  no  doubt  acted  at  the  Red  Bull) 
demands  a  stage  curtain,  etc. 

"  It  is  certainly  possible  that  the  rear  stage  in  some  theatres  could  be  shut  in  by 
large  folding  doors  as  well  as  by  curtains  (cf.  Reynolds,  Mod.  Phil.,  IX,  p.  58).  It 
should  be  noted  in  this  connection  that  NeuendorflE  is  inclined  to  locate  various  scenes 
in  a  fourth  stage,  the  space  behind  a  door.  Any  space  beneath  the  upper  stage  which 
was  large  enough  to  stage  a  banquet,  game  at  chess,  or  person  lying  on  a  bed,  etc.,  so 
that  the  scenes  could  be  observed  by  the  entire  audience  practically  amounts  to  an 
"alcove". 


14   THE   COURT   AND   THEATRES   DURING   THE   REIGN    OF   ELIZABETH 

than  the  side  doors.  Was  Thomas  Holyoke,  for  example,  thinking 
of  the  Roman  theatre  when  he  defined  scena  in  his  Latin  dictionary 
(1677)  as  "the  middle  door  of  the  stage"?  As  we  shall  see  later, 
scene  was  apparently  used  at  times  before  1660  to  denote  the  rear 
stage  itself.  Cases  in  Restoration  dramas  where  door  is  used  to 
refer  to  the  scene  or  curtain  are  rather  frequent. 

Another  thing  should  be  noted  in  connection  with  Percy's 
"Canopie".  Near  the  end  of  the  play  we  find  the  words:  "Here 
they  shutt  both  [i.  e.,  Orion  and  Hysiphyle]  into  the  Canopie  Fane 
or  Trophey  together  with  the  banquet"  (p.  187).  We  can  under- 
stand how  a  person  of  Percy's  temper  might  call  a  chapel  a  temple 
or  fane,  but  not  even  Percy's  originality  would  seem  to  justify  the 
use  of  the  word  "Trophey"  as  a  synonym  for  "Faery  Chappell". 
There  is  only  one  possible  motive  for  such  procedure.  On  page 
100  Hysiphyle  says  to  Orion : 

"Will  you  enforce  us?  our  cause  not  yet  hearde? 
My  Lord,  fore  I  do  loose  my  right,  I  will 
Use  all  the  Points  of  woodmanship  I  have 
Gainst  you,  win  the  Crown  weare  you  it  and  mee, 
And  loe,  in  pawn,  I  hurle  him  up  our  Tropheye." 

And  in  the  margin  are  written  the  words :  ' '  She  hurld  her  ghirlond 
Imperiall  up  to  Front  of  the  Fane  or  Chappell".  It  may  be  urged 
that  by  some  extraordinary  mental  process  Percy  eighty-nine  pages 
further  on  had  these  lines  in  mind  when  he  wrote  the  word 
' '  Trophey ' '.  This,  however,  would  hardly  explain  why  he  had  the 
characters  "shutt  in  the  Trophey",  since  on  page  183  the  "Im- 
periall Ghirlond"  had  been  removed  from  the  front  of  the  chapel 
and  placed  on  the  head  of  Orion. 

An  explanation  of  what  Percy  really  had  in  mind  when  he  wrote 
the  direction  may  be  ventured.  He  was  trying  to  describe  the  rear 
of  his  stage,  that  is,  a  large  opening  surmounted  by  a  balcony  and 
flanked  by  two  smaller  openings.  The  "trophees"  or  triumphal 
arches  erected  at  the  coronation  of  the  sovereigns  or  on  similar 
occasions  admirably  fit  such  conditions.  At  Elizabeth 's  coronation, 
for  example,  a  pageant  or  arch  extended  from  one  side  of  the  street 
to  the  other.  "And  in  the  same  pageant  was  devised  three  gates 
all  open,  and  over  the  middle  part  thereof  was  erected  one  chaire 
or  seate  roiall",  etc.    Across  the  front  of  the  pageant  was  written 


THE   STRUCTURAL   ELEMENTS   OF   THE   ELIZABETHAN   STAGE         15 

its  title.-®  This  was  at  Cornehill,  "Against  Soper  lane  was  ex- 
tended from  the  one  side  of  the  street  to  the  other,  a  pageant  which 
had  three  gates  all  open;  over  the  middlemost  whereof  were 
erected  three  severall  stages,  whereon  sat  eight  children,  as  here- 
after followeth",  etc.-^  The  queen  and  her  train  passed  through 
the  middle  and  largest  gate.  When  James  I  entered  London  in 
1603,  at  Cheapside  stood  a  ' '  stately  entraunce  into  which  was  a  f  aire 
gate,  in  height  18  foote,  in  breadth  12 ;  the  thicknesse  of  the  passage 
under  it  being  24.  Two "  posternes  stoode  wide  open  on  the  two 
sides,  either  of  them  being  4  foote  wide,  and  8  foote  high".^^  The 
Dutch  pageant  on  the  same  occasion  ^^  was  similar,  the  central  gate 

measuring  12  X  18  ft.  with  "two  lesser  posternes for 

common  feete,  cut  out  and  open'd  on  the  sides  of  the  other".  If 
it  be  objected  that  such  structures  were  not  called  "Trophees", 
then  I  refer  the  reader  to  Dekker's  account  of  the  "Italian  trophee" 
erected  at  James  I's  entrance,^"  or  to  his  words  regarding  the 
Dutch  pageant  referred  to  above:  "Above  which  (being  the  heart 
of  the  trophee)  was  a  spacious  square  roome,  left  open,  silke  cur- 
taines  drawne  before  it".^^ 

Perhaps  "Fane"  was  also  used  as  a  descriptive  word  to  apply 
to  the  background  of  the  stage.  Percy's  position  and  the  stage 
direction  above  imply  that  he  knew  Greek.  Possibly  the  skene  of 
the  Attic  theatre,  usually  penetrated  by  three  openings  and  fre- 
quently representing  a  fane  or  temple  in  Greek  tragedy,  flashed  into 
his  head,  but  the  more  suggestive  "trophey"  was  considered  a 
necessary  addition  for  clearness. 

Other  descriptive  words  used  in  connection  with  the  rear  stage 
are  perhaps  extant.  In  1598  Florio  writing  for  Englishmen  de- 
fined scena  in  his  dictionary  as  "a  skaffold,  a  pavillion,  or  fore- 
part of  a  theatre  where  players  make  them  readie,  being  trimmed 
with  hangings,  out  of  which  they  enter  upon  the  stage".     Florio 

>«  Holinshed,   IV,   163. 
"Ibid.,  p.  165. 

="  Dekker'g  Account  of  Entry  of  James,   Nichols,  Prog,   of  Eliz.,  ed.   1805,   III,   61. 
«Ibid.,  56. 
00  Ibid.,   54. 

"^  Ibid.,  57.  For  other  cases  see  Gilbert  Dugdale's  Time  Triumphant  in  Nichols, 
Prog,  of  James  I,  I,   pp.   417,   418,   419. 


16   THE   COURT   AND   THEATRES   DURING   THE  REIGN  OF   ELIZABETH 

probably  had  the  English  theatre  in  mind,^^  the  canopy  of  Percy 
and  Marston.  Years  before,  Palsgrave  had  used  the  word  ' '  scene ' ' 
in  its  old  sense  of  dressing-room,  or  booth,  when  in  the  Prologue 
to  his  Acolasius  he  wrote  (cf.  N.  E.  D.  under  "scenish")  :  "The 
settying  forth  or  trymming  of  our  scenes,  that  is  to  saye,  our  places 
appoynted  for  our  players  to  come  forth  of".  About  1520  the 
author  of  The  englyssJie  Mancyne  apon  the  foure  cardynale  vertues 
spoke  of  "a  disgyser  yt  goeth  into  a  secret  corner  callyd  a  sene  of 
the  pleyinge  place  to  chaunge  his  rayment".^^  Perhaps  some  idea 
of  what  Florio  meant  by  hangings  at  the  "forepart"  of  the  stage  is 
brought  out  by  Heywood  in  his  Apology  for  Actors  (p.  18),  where 
he  has  Melpomene  to  say  that  the  Golden  Age  was  a  time 

"Fit  for  you  bards  to  vent  your  golden  rymes. 
Then  did  I  tread  on  arras;  cloth  of  tissue 
Hung  round  the  fore-front  of  my  stage." 

Two  late  cases  of  the  word  "scene"  in  much  the  same  sense  that 
Florio  seems  to  have  used  it  as  applying  to  the  part  of  the  tiring- 
house  behind  the  curtains  are  probably  to  be  found.  Dekker's  If 
This  Be  Not  a  Good  Play  (pub.  1612,  as  lately  acted  at  the  Red 
Bull)  has  the  direction,  "Narcisso  stepping  in  before  in  the  Scene, 
enters  here ' '.  This  direction  clearly  means  that  Narcisso  after  hav- 
ing been  on  the  rear  stage  ("scene")  for  some  time  passes  to 
("enters")  the  front  stage.  Brome's  Joviall  Crew  (pub.  1641  as 
acted  at  the  Cockpit)  contains  the  direction,  "He  opens  the  scene; 
the  Beggars  are  discovered  in  their  postures".  Scene  in  the  later 
sense  of  curtain  or  partition  was  probably  pretty  common  when 
this  play  was  presented,  but  in  view  of  what  has  preceded,  it  is 
possible  to  interpret  the  words  to  mean  that  the  curtains  before  the 
"scene"  (rear  stage)  were  drawn. 

Percy's  "Canopie"  and  Florio 's  "pavillion"  are  both  good 
terms  to  apply  to  a  recess  located  beneath  a  roof  or  balcony  and 
shut  off  from  the  view  of  the  audience  by  arras  or  curtains.  This 
being  true,  there  is  always  the  possibility  that  when  stage  direc- 
tions refer  to  a  canopy,  the  author  has  in  mind  the  space  beneath 

"  Of  course  he  may  have  had  in  mind  the  draped  platforms  of  early  Italian  pro- 
vincial actors,  but  certainly  not  the  various  16th  century  theatres  erected  for  court  and 
church  festivals  after  the  model  of  Vitruvius.  Cf.  Flechsig,  Dekoration  der  Modemen 
Biihne  in  Italien,  passim;  Bapst,  Essai  sur  Histoire  du  Thiatre,  pp.  245  ff. ;  Mantzius 
HUt.  of  Theatrical  Art,  II,  342. 

"  Mod.  Lang.   Quarterly,  vi,    145. 


THE   STRUCTURAL   ELEMENTS   OP   THE   ELIZABETHAN   STAGE         17 

the  balcony  —  an  ordinary  feature  of  playhouses  —  and  not  a 
separate  stage  property.  And  Florio's  "pavillion",  apparently 
used  of  stages  in  general  in  1598,  as  well  as  Percy's  "eanopie", 
cannot  be  well  applied,  it  should  be  noted,  to  the  mimorum  aedes 
of  the  Swan  sketch. 

Not  only  were  canopies  employed  in  the  London  theatres,  but 
it  is  pretty  certain  that  separate  structures  for  shops,  etc.  were  also 
used.^*  Even  their  use  does  not  show,  however,  that  a  regular 
stage  curtain  was  lacking.  The  rear  stage  was  primarily  designed 
to  take  the  place  of  such  structures,  thereby  keeping  down  expenses 
and  at  the  same  time  allowing  adequate  presentation.  But  when  it 
was  necessary  or  desirable  to  employ  a  shop  or  stable  in  addition 
to  the  space  behind  the  curtain,  then  a  shop  or  stable  was  employed. 

Neuendorff's  argument  for  a  vorhanglose  Buhne  on  the  basis 
of  the  pictures  is  not  convincing.  The  Red  Bull  picture  is  of  no 
significance  in  this  connection.  There  is  surely  no  reason  for  as- 
suming, as  Neuendorff  does,  that  the  Roxana  picture  represents  a 
type  of  stage  essentially  different  from  that  of  the  Messallina  pic- 
ture. Evidence  has  been  given  elsewhere  ^^  for  believing  that  the 
Swan  in  1602  was  provided  with  hangings  and  curtains,  a  matter 
that  will  receive  further  treatment  in  the  following  pages. 

Stage  directions  are  of  little  value  in  proving  or  disproving  the 
existence  of  curtains.  As  Neuendorff  recognizes  (p.  59),  such  stage 
directions  as  ''enter  in  a  bed",  "a  bed  thrust  forth",  do  not  in 
any  sense  prove  the  absence  of  a  stage  curtain.  Many  examples  of 
this  "crudity"  can  be  found  in  extremely  late  plays.  As  Albright 
remarks  (pp.  140-6),  such  directions  may  in  many  cases  at  least  de- 
note the  placing  of  the  bed  on  the  rear  stage  or  the  actor's  tendency 

*^  Reynolds  (Some  Principles,  I,  20,  note)  has  cited  probable  instances  of  this  in 
Histriomastix,  Arden  of  Feversham,  and  Bartholomew  Fair.  Regarding  this  last  play, 
we  at  least  know  that  when  it  was  acted  at  court  separate  structures  were  used,  for  in 
the  Pipe  Office  Records  for  1614-15  occurs  the  entry:  "Canvas  for  the  Boothes  and 
other  necessaries  for  a- play  called  Bartholmewe  Paire"  (cited  by  Reyher,  p.  382,  note). 
The  Roaring  Girl  calls  for  three  shops  in  a  "rank".  We  recaU  in  this  connection  Hens- 
lowe's  "Belendon  stable"  [Belendons  table?]  and  "i  whell  and  frame  in  the  Sege  of 
London".  What  is  this  frame?  Perhaps  the  rather  large  sum  of  20s.  lent  by  Henslowe 
on  Oct.  23,  1602,  to  John  Thare  "to  paye  unto  the  paynter  of  the  propertys  for  the 
playe  of  the  iii  brothers"  (Greg.  I,  184)  refers  to  the  painting  of  canvas  stretched  on 
frames. 

^Mod.  Phil.,  Jan.,  1912. 


18   THE   COURT   AND   THEATRES    DURING   THE   REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH 

to  present  his  action  as  far  forward  as  possible.^®  The  bringing  in 
of  banquets  proves  nothing  one  way  or  another.  Banquets  were 
regularly  "brought  in"  in  actual  Elizabethan  life. 

That  definite  references  to  curtains  in  stage  directions  are  com- 
paratively rare  is  quite  true,  but  again  this  does  not  prove  their 
non-existence.  It  does  not  prove  that  they  were  not  employed 
even  in  plays  where  no  reference  is  made  to  them.  The  existence 
or  non-existence  of  curtains  is  surly  not  to  be  determined  on  the 
basis  of  stage  directions.  There  is,  I  admit,  always  a  presumption 
against  drawing  a  curtain  unless  a  direction  bids  one  do  so ;  and  I 
heartily  approve  of  Reynolds's  objection  to  the  regular  playing  back 
and  forth  of  curtains  called  for  in  Albright's  system  of  staging. 
No  one,  however,  will  deny,  I  believe,  that  numerous  cases  of  the 
operation  of  curtains  are  entirely  unnoted  either  in  directions  or 
dialogue.  After  opening  they  are  frequently  closed  without  any 
reference  to  the  process.  One  example  will  make  this  clear.  At 
the  beginning  of  II,  i,  of  Lord  Cromwell,  occur  the  words,  ' '  Crom- 
well in  his  study"  (i.  e.  discovered).  In  III,  2,  "Hodge  sits  in 
the  study"  (before  the  curtains  are  opened).  At  line  126  the 
governor  says,  ' '  Goe  draw  the  curtaines ' ',  and  Hodge  is  discovered 
writing  a  letter.  The  curtains  have  surely  closed  since  opening  at 
the  beginning  of  II,  i,  although  there  is  nothing  to  that  effect  in 
stage-direction  or  text.  Somewhat  different  are  such  scenes  as 
IV,  3,  of  the  first  part  of  Edward  IV,  where  at  the  end  of  the  scene 
Shore's  wife  is  sitting  in  the  shop  while  he  is  standing  by.  The 
scene  closes  with  the  words  of  the  wife : 

"I  prithee,  come,  sweet  love,  and  sit  by  me. 
No  king  that's  under  heaven  I  love  like  thee." 

Surely  the  very  domestic  Shore  did  not  refuse  this  invitation. 
Nor  is  it  probable  that  the  couple  left  the  stage  to  do  their  sitting, 
or  sat  for  a  moment  and  then  made  an  exit. 

Of  more  importance  are  cases  of  the  curtains  opening  without 
stage-directions  to  that  effect.  Such  vague  remarks  as  "Cromwell 
in  his  study",  "Let  there  be  a  brazen  Head  set  in  the  middle  of 
the  place  behind  the  stage",   cases  where  "enter"   means   "dis- 

•*  The  most  pertinent  direction  in  this  connection  that  I  know  is  that  in  V,  i,  of 
The  Lost  Lady,  "Enter  the  Moor  on  her  bed,  Hermione,  Phillida  and  Irene.  The  bed 
thrust  out".  "Enter"  is  obviously  used  in  a  general  way  here,  as  it  is  in  I,  2,  of  A  Shoe- 
maker a  gentleman,  "Enter  discover'd  in  a  Shop",  etc.  Cf.  also  "Enter,  an  angell  ascends 
out  of  the  well",  etc.   (ibid.,  I,  3,  101). 


THE   STRUCTURAL   ELEMENTS   OF   THE   ELIZABETHAN   STAGE         19 

cover"  ^^  are  in  a  certain  sense  examples  of  this.  Reynolds  ^^  has 
pointed  out  that  in  Pericles  "two  almost  certain  discoveries  are 
quite  unnoted  in  the  directions".  At  the  beginning  of  the  second 
act  of  The  Battle  of  Alcazar  Furies  are  referred  to  as  sounding 
in  a  "cave",  but  that  is  all.  In  the  "Plot"  of  the  play,  however, 
occur  the  words :  "to  them  [l]ying  behind  the  Curtaines  3  Furies". 
The  whole  situation  as  well  as  the  phraseology  of  the  direction  indi- 
cates, as  Neuendorff  notes  (p.  85),  that  the  Furies  were  discovered 
in  a  situation.  In  A  Looking  Glass  for  London,  II,  i,  a  similar 
opening  of  the  curtains  occurs.  The  well-known  direction  in  Bussy 
D'Ambois,  I,  1 — "Table,  chessboard,  and  tapers  behind  the  arras" 
—  the  words  at  the  conclusion  of  Tancred  and  Gismunda,  Antonio's 
Revenge,  V,  2,  are  other  examples.  In  Endymion  and  Sir  Clyoman 
and  Sir  Clymades  a  curtain  was  surely  used  although  there  is  no 
direction  to  that  effect.  Other  instances  of  this  sort  of  thing  can 
be  cited,  but  these  are  sufficient,  it  seems  to  me,  to  justify  an  as- 
sumption of  the  operation  of  curtains  when  the  situation  demands 
it,  although  that  operation  may  be  entirely  unnoted  in  stage  direc- 
tions or  dialogue.  The  problem,  of  course,  is  to  determine  when  the 
situation  actually  demands  the  opening  or  closing  of  curtains. 

Again,  Neuendorff  is,  in  my  opinion,  too  skeptical  when  he  ex- 
presses a  doubt  (p.  86)  whether  the  reference  in  Tatham's  prologue 
to  spectators  casting  various  objects  against  the  curtain  at  the  Bull 
necessarily  refers  to  the  stage  curtain.  The  words  in  the  prologue 
to  Cynthia's  Revels,  "Slid  the  boy  takes  me  for  a  piece  of  perspec- 
tive ....  or  some  silke  cortaine,  come  to  hang  the  stage 
here",  he  similarly  regards  as  indefinite.  "Curtain",  he  remarks, 
"ist  nicht  ein  ganz  sicherer,  eindeutiger  Ausdruck,  wenn  er  nicht 
durch  Angabe  der  Funktion  verdeutlicht  wird".  To  be  sure  the 
actual  function  of  the  curtain  in  these  two  cases  is  not  specified,  but 
there  seems  to  be  no  objection  to  giving  the  natural  interpretation 
to  the  Avord  in  both  instances,  when  curtains  are  obviously  referred 
to  as  the  ordinary  and  accustomed  part  of  a  theatre.  Chamber- 
lain's allusion  to  the  curtains  at  the  Swan  in  1602  is  a  similar  case. 

8' Reynolds,  Some  Principles,  I,  19:  Creizenach,  Geschiehte,  IV,  422.  It  is  certain 
that  "exit"  was  similarly  used  in  a  loose  way.  Cf.  Antonio's  Revenge,  V,  2,  "The  cur- 
tains being  drawn,  exit  Andrugio"',  "The  Curtains  are  drawn,  Piero  departeth".  In 
both  cases  the  actors  leave  the  stage  after  the  curtains  are  closed. 

o^Mod.  Phil,  IX,   52. 


20   THE   COURT   AND   THEATRES   DURING   THE   REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH 

The  Careless  Shepherdess  (pr.  1656)^^  contains  the  lines: 
"There  is  ne'er  a  part 
About  him  but  breaks  jests. — 
I  never  saw  Reade  peeping  through  the  curtain, 
But   ravishing   joy   entered   my   heart." 
One  determined  to  prove  the  accuracy  of  the  Swan  sketch  might  re- 
strict this  passage  as  referring  to  the  late  Blackfriars,*°  or  imagine 
Reade  peeping  through  bed  curtains.    Similarly  one  could  arbitrari- 
ly restrict  Sir  Walter  Raleigh's  words  to  the  court  stage: 
"What  is  our  life?    The  play  of  passion. 
Our  mirth?    The  music  of  division: 
Our  mothers'  wombs  the  tiring-houses  be, 
Where  we  are  dressed  for  life's  short  comedy. 
The  earth  the  stage;  Heaven  the  spectator  is, 
Who  sits  and  views  whoso'er  doth  act  amiss. 
The  graves  which  hide  us  from  the  scorching  sun 
Are  like  drawn  curtains  when  the  play  is  done."  4i 

It  is  virtually  certain,  however,  that  Sir  "Walter  was  taking  his 
figure  from  general  theatrical  conditions.  Drummond  of  Haw- 
thorndon  in  his  Cypress  Grove  Walks'^^  uses  the  old  figure:  "Every 
one  cometh  there  to  act  his  part  of  this  tragi-comedy,  called  life, 
which  done,  the  courtaine  is  drawn,  and  he  removing  is  said  to  dy". 
"Shut  up"  in  Elizabethan  English  is  a  rather  general  expression, 
but  it  is  likely  that  Day  had  in  mind  the  custom  of  closing  the 
stage  curtains  at  the  conclusion  of  a  play  when  he  has  Aspero  to 
end  Humour  Out  of  Breath  with  the  words: 
"And  so  shut  up  our  single  comedy. 
With  Plautus  phrase:  Si  placet,  plaudite." 

A  general  practice,  and  not  the  opening  or  closing  of  specific  cur- 
tains in  a  specific  theatre,  is  in  all  probability  referred  to  in  the 
Chorus  preceding  II,  1,  of  Hey  wood's  Edward  IV  (second  part)  : 

"Now  do  we  draw  the  curtain  of  our  scene,*^ 
To  speak  of  Shore  and  his  fair  wife  again." 

Such  quotations,  of  course,  do  not  aid  much  in  proving  a  stage 
curtain  at  the  Theatre  or  Globe.    They  are  given  to  show  that  when 

*»  Collier,  Bibliog.  Catalogue,  II,  382. 

**•  Cf.    The    Stage    players    complaint    in   a   pleatant    Dialogue    between    Cane    of   the 
Fortune   and  Reed  of  the  Friers   (1691). 
"  J.  Hannah,  Works  of  Raleigh,  p.  29. 
■**  Quoted  in  N.  E.  D.  under  "curtain". 
"  Is  scene  used  here  in  sense  of  rear-stage  ?     Cf .  above. 


THE   STRUCTURAL  ELEMENTS   OF   THE   ELIZABETHAN   STASE         21 

Elizabethans  spoke  of  curtains  in  a  playhouse,  they  probably  did 
not  have  in  mind  curtains  to  the  upper  stage,  bed  curtains  or 
canopies. 

When  such  things  as  have  been  referred  to  above  are  considered, 
together  with  the  evidence  for  curtains  which  Neuendorff  has  col- 
lected, there  is  surely  no  reason  for  believing  that  the  vorhang- 
lose  BiiJine  was  ever  a  wide-spread  type,  that  it  represents  an  ex- 
periment in  stage  construction  as  late  as  the  building  of  the  Swan, 
or  that  such  a  type  is  to  be  used  in  tracing  a  development  in  the 
methods  of  Elizabethan  staging.  There  is  no  reason  for  believing 
that  it  existed  at  all  in  Elizabethan  theatres. 

Apparently  realizing  the  common  use  of  curtains  in  London 
theatres  and  carrying  out  his  theory  of  various  experimentations 
in  theatre  building,  Neuendorff  conceives  a  special  form  of  stage 
to  accommodate  such  scenes  as  David  and  Bethsahe,  I,  1,  Ford's 
Love's  Sacrifice,  V,  1,  Browne's  Novella,  TV,  1.  "Man  nehme", 
he  writes,  "die  Swanbiihne,  statte  sie  mit  einem  Vorhang  da  aus, 
wo  jetzt  die  beiden  Saulen  stehen,  und  denke  man  nun  die  ganze 
Biihne  so  weit  zuriickgeriickt,  dass  der  Vorhang  dort  hangt,  wo 
jetzt  das  Tiring-house  beginnt  (dabei  ist  noch  gans  von  den  Tiiren 
abgesehen).  Moglich  ist  ja  audi,  dass  fiir  solche  Scenen  gelegent- 
lich  auch  die  Swanbiihne  einen  Vorhang  erhielt"  (pp.  92-93). 

That  such  a  form  of  stage  existed  is  at  least  conceivable.  Large 
curtains  were  used  at  court;  possibly,  front  curtains  existed  in 
private  theatres.  It  is  hardly  probable,  however,  that  such  a  stage 
was  suggested  by  such  a  one  as  that  shown  in  the  DeWitt  sketch, 
or  that  curtains  were  ever  suspended  between  such  pillars  as  are 
therein  revealed.  Nor  is  a  special  type  of  stage  necessary  to  ex- 
plain the  scenes  cited  above.  They  are  admirably  explained  by 
oblique  doors  or  the  "canopy"  stage.  Reynolds's  idea  that  in 
such  scenes  the  actors  need  not  actually  see  those  on  the  inner  stage 
is  in  itself  a  satisfactory  explanation.** 

Neuendorff  is  by  no  means  an  alternationist ;  he  would  not  hang 
permanently  a  curtain  between  the  pillars  of  the  Swan  type  of 
stage ;  but  the  fact  that  curtains  are  found  at  the  Swan  in  1602  and 
the  great  importance  which  he  attaches  to  the  DeWitt  sketch  neces- 

**  Some  of  us  have  no  doubt  seen  the  vision  of  Margaret  appear  directly  beneath 
Faust. 


22   THE   COURT   AND   THEATRES    DURING   THE    REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH 

sitate  a  discussion  of  the  drawing,  especially  the  nature  and  loca- 
tion of  the  front  pillars. 

Is  the  DeWitt  sketch  to  be  accepted  as  representing  the  real 
nature  and  position  of  the  shadow  and  pillars  at  the  Swan  ?  If  so, 
were  the  curtains  mentioned  by  Chamberlain  in  1602  suspended 
between  these  pillars  ?  And  if  so,  was  this  type  of  stage  at  all  com- 
mon during  the  Elizabethan  period?  These  are  the  questions  that 
now  demand  our  attention. 

As  w^e  have  seen,  Neuendorff  groups  the  Fortune,  Swan,  Globe, 
and  Hope  under  the  same  general  type  of  stage;  and  on  page 
25  he  asserts  that,  probably  after  the  analogy  of  the  Swan,  the 
"heavens"  supported  by  the  pillars  covered  only  a  part  of  the 
lower  stage  at  the  Fortune  and  Globe.  Whether  he  regards  these 
theatres  as  being  substantially  like  the  Swan,  or  whether  he  con- 
siders them  to  be  examples  of  the  modified  Swan  stage  mentioned 
above,  I  am  unable  to  say.  I  will  say,  however,  that  there  is  no 
reason  for  believing  that  the  DeWitt  sketch  in  the  matter  of 
shadow  and  pillars  represents  conditions  as  they  existed  before  or 
after  the  building  of  the  Swan.  In  all  probability  it  does  not 
represent  conditions  as  they  existed  at  the  Swan. 

In  a  recent  article  *^  John  Corbin  has  printed  a  drawing  of 
the  Fortune  by  George  Varian,  which  represents,  it  seems  to  me, 
more  truly  the  real  structure  of  the  shadow  or  "heavens"  than 
does  any  drawing  that  has  yet  appeared.  Under  the  influence, 
perhaps,  of  the  DeWitt  sketch,  the  designer  of  the  "typical" 
Elizabethan  stage  in  Albright's  The  Shaksperian  Stage  represents 
the  shadow  as  a  sort  of  penthouse  covering  only  a  small  portion  of 
the  projecting  stage.*^  In  Varian 's  drawing,  however,  the  shadow 
is  much  larger  and  higher,  and  it  virtually  covers  the  entire  stage. 
I  believe  that  in  some  theatres  at  least  the  "hut"  projected  further 
into  the  yard  than  is  shown  even  in  Varian 's  drawing,  and  that  at 
the  Fortune,  Globe,  Rose  and  Hope,  perhaps  at  the  Curtain  and 
Theatre,  the  shed  attached  to  it  extended  practically  to  the  front 
edge  of  the  stage.     My  reasons  for  this  view  follow. 

In  the  contract  for  the  Fortune  *^  it  is  specified  that  there  is 

*^  Century  Magazine,  Dec,  1911,  p.  261.  Varian's  drawing  is  followed  in  this 
respect  by  Stouer  in  the  semi-monthly  magazine  section  of  the  Chicago  Tribune  for 
April  4,  1912. 

"  This  is  also  true  of  other  drawings,  as  those  of  Godfrey  and  Schelling. 
*''  Henslowe  Papers,  ed.   Greg,  p.  5. 


THE   STRUCTURAL   ELEMENTS   OF   THE   ELIZABETHAN   STAifE         23 

to  be  "a  shadowe  or  cover  over  the  saide  Stadge",  which  stage  is 
* '  to  extende  to  the  middle  of  the  yarde  of  the  saide  howse  ".  "  Over 
the  saide  Stadge"  and  "coveringe  of  the  saide  stadge"  do  not, 
of  course,  necessarily  mean  that  the  cover  is  to  extend  over  the 
entire  stage,  but  that  is  at  least  the  most  natural  interpretation  to 
give  to  the  expressions.  The  same  is  true  of  Cotgrave's  definition 
{French  Dictionary,  1611)  of  Volerie  as  "a  place  over  a  stage  which 
we  call  the  Heaven".  Even  the  words  "shadow"  and  "cover"  sug- 
gest that  the  entire  stage,  and  not  a  part  of  it,  was  to  be  covered. 
"Heavens"  suggests  the  same  thing,  as  is  illustrated  in  Cotgrave's 
definition  of  "Dais",  for  example,  as  "a  cloth  of  estate,  canopie, 
or  Heaven,  that  stands  over  the  heads  of  Princes  thrones ' '.  In  his 
preface  to  the  1591  edition  of  Astrophel  and  Stella*^  Nash  wrote: 
"here  you  shall  find  a  paper  stage  strewed  with  pearl,  an  artificial 
heaven  to  overshadow  the  faire  frame".  "Overshadow  the  fair 
frame"  is  perhaps  more  definite;  and  Nash,  be  it  remembered,  was 
apparently  taking  his  figure  from  existing  conditions  at  the  Curtain 
and  Theatre.*^  At  the  Hope  the  "heavens"  were  to  be  constructed 
*  *  all  over  the  saide  stage ' ' ;  and  if  the  picture  of  the  second  Globe 
is  of  any  service  in  this  connection,  it  is  apparent  that  in  this 
theatre,  too,  the  "heavens"  must  have  extended  "all  over"  the 
stage,  since  the  foremost  of  the  two  huts  surely  extends  to  fully  half 
the  distance  of  the  yard. 

And  why  assume  that  practical  Englishmen  in  building  shadows 
for  protection  should  build  that  protection  over  half  the  stage 
rather  than  over  all  of  it?  One  of  the  reasons,  says  Gosson,  why 
Life  in  The  Play  of  Plays  chose  Commedies  for  his  companion  was 
' '  because  he  may  sit  out  of  the  raine  to  viewe  the  same,  when  many 
other  pastimes  are  hindred  by  wether."  When  "commedies," 
then,  were  presented  at  public  houses  during  rainy  weather,  why 
believe  that  actors  in  their  gorgeous  and  expensive  costumes  were 
either  exposed  to  the  weather  or  else  confined  to  the  rear  portion 
of  the  stage? 

There  is  perhaps  another  reason  for  believing  that  the  "hut" 
projected  well  forward  and  that  the  "cover"  attached  to  it  M^as  not 
a  mere  penthouse,  but  a  structure  parallel  to  the  stage  floor  and 

**  Lee,  Eliz.  Sonnets,  I,  5. 

*»The  Rose  certainly  had  a  "heaven",  (Henslowe's  Diary,  ed.  Greg,  I,  4).  As 
Greg  notes,  there  is  no  evidence  for  supposing  that  the  Rose  was  built  before  1592. 


24   THE    COURT   AND   THEATRES   DURING   THE   REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH 

practically  as  high  as  the  ceiling  of  the  upper  gallery.  The  term 
"heavens"  doubtless  had  a  double  significance.  In  addition  to 
being  a  cover  or  canopy  over  the  stage,  it  was  a  "heaven"  in  the 
sense  that  it  was  fitted  up,  perhaps  very  elaborately,  to  represent 
the  firmament. 

The  representation  of  heaven  by  painted  canvas  stretched  over- 
head was  no  new  thing  in  1576.  Among  the  items,  for  example, 
delivered  on  July  4,  1470,  by  "Master  Canynge"  to  Nicholas  Fet- 
ters, vicar  of  St.  Mary  Redcliffe,  was  a  new  sepulchre  gilt  with 
gold,  and  among  other  things  belonging  to  it,  "Heaven,  made  of 
timber  and  stain 'd  cloth",  and  "The  Holy  Ghosht  coming  out  of 
Heaven  into  the  supulchre".^"  The  masqueing  and  banqueting 
houses  of  the  time  were  regularly  covered  with  canvas  painted 
like  the  heavens.  The  one  erected  in  the  courtyard  of  the  Bastille 
in  1519,^^  for  example,  was  covered  with  ' '  an  awning  of  blue  canvas 
well  waxed  and  powdered  with  gilt  stars,  signs  and  planets ' ',  while 
Henry  VIII 's  "theatre",  erected  at  Calais  in  1520,  had  a  roof  of 
azure-colored  canvas  "decorated  with  gold  stars  and  planets  of 
looking  glass  ".^^ 

"Heavens"  in  pageants  are  not  unknown.  At  the  coronation 
of  Edward  VI  "towardes  Chepe  there  was  a  doble  scafolde  one 
above  the  other,  which  was  hanged  with  cloth  of  golde  and  silke, 
besydes  rich  arras.  There  was  also  devised  under  the  upper 
scafolde  an  element  or  heaven,  with  the  sunn,  starrs,  and  clowdes 
very  naturally.  From  this  clowde  there  spred  abroad  another  les- 
ser clowde  of  white  sarsenet,  frenged  with  sylke,  powdered  with 
sterres  and  hemes  of  gold,  out  of  the  whiche  there  descended  a 
Phenyx  downe  to  the  nether  scafolde."  A  "crowne  imperiall"  was 
also  "brought  from  heaven  above,  as  by  ii  angelles",  and  placed 
upon  a  lion's  head.^^ 

At  court  we  hear  of  wages  as  early  as  1564  for  work  upon 
"divers  devisses  as  the  heavens  &  clowds".  In  the  accounts  for 
1574-5  "Bubble  gyrtes  to  hange  the  soon  in  the  Clowde"  are  men- 

"0  Park,  Nugae  Antiquae,  I,   12-13. 

"  Oal.  State  Papers,   Venetian,   1509-1519,   p.  485. 

'"Ibid.,  1520-26,  p.  32.  For  other  examples  see  Oal.  State  Papers,  Venetian,  1527- 
33,  pp.  59-60;  Feuillerat,  Doc.  of  Revels,  pp.  163,  167;  Holinshed,  Chronicle,  ed.  of  1808, 
IV,   434-5. 

**  Literary  Remains  of  Ed.  VI,  I,  p.  cclxxxvi. 


THE   STRUCTURAL,   ELEMENTS   OF   THE   ELIZABETHAN    STAGE         25 

tioned,^*  while  in  the  same  year  John  Carow  is  referred  to  as 
furnishing  "heaven,  hell,  &  the  devell  &  all  the  devell  I  should 
saie  but  not  all".^^ 

Nash  in  1591  spoke  of  an  artificial  heaven  overshadowing  his 
fair  stage.  Henslowe  in  1598  mentions  the  cloth  of  the  sun  and 
moon;  three  suns  apparently  performed  in  Third  Henry  VI,  II,  1, 
five  moons  in  The  Trouhlesonie  Reign;  and  in  the  Play  of  Thos. 
Stucley  "with  a  sudden  thunder-clap  the  sky  is  on  fire  and  the 
blazing  star  appears".  One  is  reminded,  too,  of  the  "Two  pieces 
of  blue  linen  cloth  with  lyre  in  them,  67  yds."  mentioned  among 
the  playing  parcels  of  Rastell  about  1530.^^  At  a  much  later  date 
Heywood  in  his  Apology  for  Actors  (pp.  34-5),  describing  Caesar's 
theatre  in  very  Elizabethan  terms,  refers  to  "the  covering  of  the 
stage,  which  wee  call  the  heavens  (where  upon  any  occasion  their 
gods  descended),  were  geometrically  supported  by  a  giant-like 
Atlas,  whom  the  poets  for  his  astrology  feigne  to  beare  heaven  on 
his  shoulders;  in  which  an  artificiall  sunne  and  moone,  of  extra- 
ordinary aspect  and  brightnesse,  had  their  diurnall  and  nocturnall 
motions ;  so  had  the  starres  their  true  and  coelestiall  course ' '. 

In  the  same  writer's  Brazen  Age,  V,  2,  a  hand  descends  from 
"heaven"  in  a  cloud  and  "from  the  place  where  Hercules  was 
burnt,  brings  up  a  starre,  and  fixeth  it  in  the  firmament".  Brome 
{Antipodes,  1638)  mentions  "our  planets  and  our  constellations" 
as  ordinary  occupants  of  the  property  room.^^  Milton  in  his 
Astrologaster  (1620)  speaks  of  the  actors  at  the  Fortune  making 
"artificial  lightning  in  their  heavens".  And  finally  R.  M.  in  his 
"Character"  of  a  player  (1629)  has  the  illuminating  passage:  "If 
his  action  prefigure  passion,  he  raves,  rages,  and  protests  much  by 
his  painted  heavens,  and  seems  in  the  height  of  this  fit  ready  to  pull 
Jove  out  of  the  garret  where  perchance  he  lies  leaning  on  his  elbows, 
or  is  employed  to  make  squibs  and  crackers  to  grace  the  play" 
(Morley,  Character  Wi'itings,  pp.  285-86). 

Now  such  properties  were  obviously  intended  to  be  seen  by  the 

wPeuillerat,  Doc.  of  Revels,  p.  240. 

»Ihid.,  p.  241. 

*«  Pollard,  Fifteenth  Cent.  Prose  and  Terse,  p.  213. 

^  When  scenes  were  actually  presented  in  heaven  the  upper  stage  was  probably 
used.  Of.  Woman  in  the  Moon,  Holiday's  Technogamia  (Collier,  Hist,  of  Dram.  Lit., 
ni,  175),  etc. 


26   THE   COURT   AND    THEATRES    DURING    THE    REIGN   OF    ELIZABETH 

entire  audience,  and  not  by  a  part  of  it,  as  would  have  been  the 
case  beneath  such  a  shadow  as  is  shown  in  the  DeWitt  sketch  with 
its  impossible  dip.  Perhaps  it  should  be  mentioned,  too,  that  the 
gods  and  thrones  that  descended  from  and  ascended  to  this  "heav- 
en" were  apparently  spectacular  features,  which,  as  Jonson  puts 
it,  especially  pleased  the  groundlings.^®  Height  was  necessary  for 
the  successful  carrying  out  of  such  devices.  Those  sitting  in  the 
upper  gallery  would  hardly  receive  the  full  benefit  of  such  opera- 
tions on  such  a  stage  as  is  shown  in  the  Swan  sketch. 

Not  only  did  gods  and  goddesses  descend  from  above,  but  the 
heavens  themselves,  as  it  were,  descended  in  the  form  of  clouds — 
a  spectacular  feature  that  would  seem  to  call  for  considerable  space 
above  the  stage  as  well  as  height.  And  clouds,  it  is  to  be  remem- 
bered, were,  like  curtains,  a  commonplace  in  London  theatres.  They 
had  been  descending  in  Italian,  French  ^^  and  English  mystery 
plays  ^^  for  years  before  Burbage  built  his  theatre,  in  city  pag- 
eants,^^  and  at  court. ^^  They  were  not  unknown  to  special  outdoor 
entertainments  f^  and  their  apparent  frequency  in  miracle  plays  is 

58  Reynolds  (Mod.  Phil.,  IX,  11)  asks  if  descending  gods,  etc.,  were  possible  in 
private  theatres.  There  seems  to  be  no  difficulty  here.  The  problem  was  the  same  as 
that  which  confronted  the  performers  at  Court  where  gods  certainly  did  descend  from 
aloft.  Instead  of  descending  from  a  "hut",  in  private  theatres  they  no  doubt  came  down 
from  rooms  above  the  stage.  It  is  possible  that  actors  even  in  their  provincial  tours 
managed  to  have  persons  descend  from  aloft.  In  the  Barnstaple  records  for  1593-4  oc- 
curs the  entry:  "paid  for  amendynge  the  seelynge  in  the  Guildhall  that  the  Enterlude 
players  had  broken  downe  there  this  year  .  .  .  .  vi  d"  (Murray,  Eng.  Dram. 
Companies,  II,  198-9).  It  is  even  probable  that  the  cover  to  the  stage  in  private  houses 
was  called  the  "heavens".  Heywood  and  Cotgrave  seem  to  be  describing  general  condi- 
tions in  England.  And  if  we  accept  the  view  that  the  prologue  to  Chapman's  All  Fools 
was  written  for  Blackfriars,  then  the  following  lines  would  argue  that  this  theatre  had  a 
"heaven" : 

"The  fortune  of  a   Stage    (like  Fortunes  selfe) 
Amazeth  greatest  judgments ;   and  none  knowes 
The  hidden  causes  of  those  strange  effects. 
That  rise  from  this  Hell,  or  fall  from  this  Heaven". 

The  place  beneath  the  stage  was  regularly  called  "Hell".  Cf.  Dekker's  News  from 
Hell,  1606,  ed.  Grosart,  p.  92,  where  it  is  said  that  "Hell"  is  under  "everie  one"  of 
the  London  stages.     See  same  volume,  p.   139. 

•>»  Stuart,  Stage  Decoration  in  France,  pp.  110,  146;  Cohen,  La  Mise  en  Seine  dans 
le    Thiatre   Religieux   Franfats,   pp.    153-4. 

^  Perhaps  they  were  not  always  possible  in  English  mysteries.  At  least  this  is  im- 
plied in  the  stage  direction  in  the  th'rd  play  of  the  Chester  Cycle:  "Et  primo  in  aliquo 
loco  sive  in  nubibus,  si  fieri  poterit,  loquatur  Deus  ad  Noe  extra  Archam".  So  in  the 
"Domesday" :    "descendet  Jesus  quasi  in  nube,   si   fieri  poterit". 

«Hall,  Chronicle,  pp.  640-1;   Nichols,  Prog,  of  Eliz.,  ed.   1788,  I,  pp.  x,   8. 

o'Doc.  of  Revels,  pp.  116,   240,   307. 

••  Cunliffe's  ed.  of  Gascoigne's  Princely  Pleasures,  pp.   107,   116. 


THE   STRUCTURAL   ELEMENTS   OF   THE   ELIZABETHAN   STAGE         27 

attested  by  Palsgrave's  words i^*  "Of  whyche  the  lyke  thyng  is 
used  to  be  shewed  now  adays  in  stage-playes,  when  some  god  or 
some  saynt  is  made  to  appeare  forth  of  a  cloude :  and  suceoureth 
the  parties  which  seemed  to  be  towardes  some  great  danger,  through 
the  Soudan's  crueltie".  That  they  were  regular  features  at  public 
theatres  as  early  as  1578-9,  is  made  probable  by  the  entry  in  the 
Revels  Accounts  for  that  date:®'  "ffor  a  hoope  and  blewe  Lynnen 
cloth  to  mend  the  clowde  that  was  Borrowed  and  cut  to  serve  the 
rocke  in  the  plaie  of  the  bumyng  knight  and  for  the  hire  thereof 
and  setting  upp  the  same  where  it  was  borrowed  .  .  .  .  x  s. " 
It  was  ' '  borrowed ' ',  I  venture  to  say,  from  Burbage  's  theatre ;  and 
the  "setting  upp  the  same  where  it  was  borrowed"  consisted  in 
replacing  it  in  the  "heavens"  of  the  Theatre. 

Just  how  large  the  clouds  ®®  were  that  descended  and  rose  in  the 
public  theatres  I  am  unable  to  say,  but  there  is  good  reason  for 
thinking  that  they  were  of  sufficient  size  to  require  considerable 
space  in  the  "heavens"  outside  the  front  edge  of  the  balcony;  for 
it  is  pretty  certain  that  clouds  did  not  descend  from  the  balcony 
but  came  straight  down  from  heaven.  This  was  true  even  at  court 
until  the  time  of  Hymenaei,  since  at  the  performance  of  this  piece, 
observed  a  spectator,  the  clouds  did  not  descend  in  the  usual  and 
commonplace  manner,  like  a  bucket  in  a  well,  but  came  down  in  a 
gentle  and  graceful  eurve.®^ 

Such  are  the  indications  that  the  "hut"  extended  well  forward 
with  a  large  shadow  or  cover  at  its  outer  edge,  a  cover  which  was 
parallel  or  virtually  parallel  to  the  platform  below,  which  was  as 
high  as  the  ceiling  of  the  upper  gallery,  and  which  extended  prac- 
tically to  the  front  edge  of  the  platform  below.  On  such  a  stage  the 
hanging  of  curtains  between  the  front  pillars  is  an  obvious  ab- 
surdity. 

^  Acolastus,   1540.     Quoted  in  Malone-Boswell  Shakespeare  of   1821,   III,   88,   note. 

**  Feuillerat,  Doc.  of  Revels,  p.  308. 

•*  If  it  is  possible  to  interpret  the  expression  that  the  cloud  was  cut  "to  serve  the 
rocke"  as  meaning  that  a  large  hole  was  cut  in  it  so  that  it  could  descend  over  the  rock, 
then  the  property  must  have  been  a  large  afifair.  "A  scalling  Ladder  that  served  at  the 
Rock"  is  referred  to  in  connection  with  the  play  (Doc.  of  Bevels,  p.  307),  while  among 
the  parcels  "bestowed  in  and  about  a  rocke  at  the  courte  for  a  plaie  enacted  by  the  Earle 
of  Warwickes  servaunts"  are  included  "Longe  sparre  poles  of  ffurre",  "Dobble  quarters 
iii",  "single  quarters  ii",  "Deale  bourdes  xxxii",  "Elme  hordes  153  foote".  (Ibid.,  pp. 
806). 

"Beyher,  Lee  Masques  Anglais,  p.  372, 


28    THE   COURT   AND   THEATRES    DURING    THE   REIGN   OF    ELIZABETH 

The  DeWitt  sketch,  to  be  sure,  does  not  show  such  pillars  and 
"heavens".  Nor  does  it  show  the  curtains  which  the  Swan  pos- 
sessed. And  granting  that  the  pillars  at  this  particular  theatre 
were  set  about  midway  of  the  stage,  as  shown  in  the  drawing,  even 
then  the  curtains  cannot  be  suspended  between  the  pillars,  as  Rey- 
nolds, Archer  and  Child  have  shown. 

The  difficulty  here  cannot  be  evaded  by  saying  that  the  Swan 
was  an  entirely  different  type  of  stage  from  those  of  the  regular 
playhouses,  that  it  was  constructed  primarily  for  variety  entertain- 
ments, or  that  it  was  an  amphitheatre  in  the  stricter  sense,  such 
a  structure  as  apparently  was  to  have  been  built  later  in  Lincoln- 
Inn  Fields  had  not  the  patent  been  cancelled  by  James  I.  Profes- 
sor C.  W.  Wallace  has  recently  shown  ^^  that  it  was  unquestionably 
used  for  plays  at  an  early  date.  DeWitt 's  calling  it  the  "largest 
and  most  beautiful ' '  of  the  London  theatres  shows  nothing  one  way 
or  the  other,  but  the  words  of  John  Weever  in  1599,®^  while  rather 
vague,  seem  to  be  another  reference  to  the  Swan  as  a  place  for 
plays : 

"Rome  had  her  Roscius  and  her  Theater, 
Her  Terence,  Plautus,  Ennius  and  Meander, 
The  first  to  Allen,  Phoebus  did  transfer 
The  next,  Thames  Swans  receiv'd  fore  he  coulde  land  her, 
Of  both  more  worthy  we  by  Phoebus  doome, 
Then  t'[o]  Allen  Roscius  yeeld,  to  London  Rome". 

Another  explanation  is  surely  necessary.  Child  ^^  after  a  very 
able  discussion  of  the  Swan  shadow  and  pillars  concludes  as  fol- 
lows: "The  fact  is  significant  that,  just  as  the  Hope,  though 
planned  on  the  lines  of  the  Swan,  was  to  be  built  of  wood,  not 
flint,  so,  in  the  contract  with  the  builder,  it  is  directly  stated  that 
he  shall  'also  builde  the  Heavens  all  over  the  saide  stage  to  be 
borne  or  carried  without  any  postes  or  supporters  to  he  fixed  or 
sett  uppon  the  saide  stage'.  It  is  possible,  therefore,  that  the  pil- 
lars of  the  Swan  were  as  the  drawing  shows  them,  and  that  the 
pentroof  covered  half  or  nearly  half  the  stage;  but  that  the  plan 
was  found  inconvenient,  was  confined  to  the  Swan  and  was  dis- 
carded by  Henslowe  when  he  built  the  Hope". 

«i5nflr.  Stud.,  43,  840  flf. 

''Epigrams,    ed.    McKerrow,    Fourth   Week,    No.    28. 

'°Oarnb.  Hist.  Eng.  Lit.,  VI,   300. 


THE   STRUCTURAIj  ELEMENTS   OF   THE   ELIZABETHAN   STAGE         29 

As  Child  says,  the  hitting  upon  such  an  unhappy  and  apparent- 
ly such  an  uncommon  plan  is  decidedly  strange.  And  as  the  Swan 
was  certainly  not  built  of  flint  but  of  very  skillfully  painted  wood/^ 
and  as  there  is  no  contrast,  expressed  or  implied,  between  the  ma- 
terials that  were  to  compose  the  two  theatres,  the  possibility  ex- 
pressed by  Child  loses  its  force.  Indeed,  if  one  interprets  the  pas- 
sage quoted  above  in  connection  with  what  immediately  precedes 
and  follows,  one  is  certainly  inclined  to  say  that  in  1614  the  pillars 
had  been  removed  from  the  Swan;  that  the  "heavens"  at  the  Hope 
were  to  cover  the  entire  stage  and  yet  be  borne  without  pillars,  as 
was  the  case  at  the  Sivan. 

It  is  more  likely,  however,  that  the  passage  in  question  is  not 
intended  to  emphasize  any  similarity  to,  or  deviation  from,  the 
Swan  stage,  but  is  intended  to  stress  the  fact  that  although  the 
"heaven"  is  to  be  a  large  structure  covering  the  entire  stage,  it  is 
nevertheless  to  be  supported  without  the  aid  of  pillars.  This  prob- 
lem was  solved  by  attaching  the  shadow  to  the  roof  above  the  upper 
gallery,  as  is  shown  in  the  picture,  "The  Hope  in  1647",  printed 
facing  page  238  of  Ordish's  Early  London  Theatres.  The  discard- 
ing of  the  front  pillars,^^  which  had  never  played  a  part  in  Eliza- 
bethan staging,  was  necessitated  by  the  fact  that  the  house  was  de- 
signed not  only  for  plays  but  also  for  bear-baiting,  a  sport  that 
would  have  been  rendered  practically  impossible  by  pillars  resting 
upon  the  front  of  a  fixed  stage,  as  was  the  case  at  the  Swan,  Globe 
and  Fortune.^^ 

Rather  than  believe  that  the  Swan  was  a  radical  deviation  in 
stage  architecture,  I  prefer  to  believe  that  the  DeWitt  sketch  mis- 
represents the  nature  of  the  shadow  and  front  pillars  as  it  mis- 

"  The  walls  of  the  banqueting-house  built  at  Westminster  in  1581  "were  closed  with 
canvas,  and  painted  all  the  outsides  of  the  same  most  artificiallie  with  a  work  called 
rusticke,  much  like  to  stone"  (Holinshed,  Chronicle,  TV,  434).  Or  perhaps  the  outside  of 
the  walls  of  the  Swan  were  plastered.  Cf.  C.  W.  Wallace,  Children  of  the  Chapel,  pp. 
30-32. 

'2  Neuendorff,  p.  21,  in  defending  the  DeWitt  drawing  says  that  whereas  the  Hope 
contract  states  explicitly  that  the  "heavens"  are  to  be  "carried  without  any  postes",  yet 
the  words  later  in  the  same  document — "and  to  make  turned  cullumes  uppon  and  over 
the  stage" — can  only  mean  that  "auch  das  Hope  Theater  Saulen  hatte,  genau  wie  das 
Swan  Theater,  wie  eben  diese  Art  von  Biihnen  solche  Saulen  vorn  auf  der  Biihne  zu 
haben  pflegten".  The  columns  upon  the  stage,  however,  were  not  placed  on  the  front 
stage.  Nor  can  they  be  regarded  as  a  vestige  of  the  "Swan  type"  of  stage.  They  were 
the  posts  supporting  the  upper  stage. 

T^Cf.   below. 


30    THE    COURT   AND   THEATRES    DURING   THE    REIGN   OF    ELIZABETH 

represents  other  features  of  the  actual  Swan  theatre.  And  if  I 
were  asked  to  make  my  contribution  to  the  conjectures  that  have 
been  made  regarding  the  manner  in  which  the  DeWitt  sketch  was 
fashioned,  I  should  be  inclined  to  say  that  the  apparent  dip  of  the 
shed  before  the  "hut"  was  not  intended  to  represent  a  slanting 
roof,  but  is  a  crude  attempt  of  one  sketching  from  the  point  of 
view  of  the  upper  gallery,  or  some  higher  point,  to  give  perspective 
to  the  structure.  Since  this  method  of  showing  perspective,  how- 
ever, if  entirely  carried  out,  would  have  resulted  in  the  hiding  of 
the  stage  itself,  it  was  therefore  abandoned,  a  process  necessarily 
resulting  in  a  curtailed  shadow  and  the  erecting  of  pillars  near  the 
middle  of  the  stage. 

And  would  such  a  ^uess  be  more  absurd  than  to  suppose  that 
the  builders  of  the  "largest  and  most  distinguished"  theatre  of 
its  time  deliberately  constructed  a  more  primitive  and  less  con- 
venient type  of  stage  than  that  which  was  already  in  existence ;  and 
that  this  innovation  in  stage-construction,  so  impractical  and  in- 
convenient as  to  be  discarded  later,  a  stage  on  which  the  "firma- 
ment" was  invisible  to  some,  actors'  costumes  were  exposed  to  the 
weather  and  curtains  virtually  impossible,  served  as  a  model,  as  it 
were,  for  the  Globe  and  Fortune  ?  If,  as  NeuendorfP  affirms,  the  late 
sixteenth  century  was  an  era  of  experimentation  in  theatre-con- 
struction and  the  author  of  the  Swan  sketch  is  to  be  trusted,  then 
somebody  obviously  blundered  when  the  most  distinguished  theatre 
of  its  day  was  built.  Granting  that  it  was  Langley  and  his  con- 
tractor, then  we  are  certainly  not  justified  in  assuming  that  Peter 
Street  and  Henslowe,  who  had  built  the  more  "developed"  Rose^ 
Burbage  and  the  rest  all  followed  in  their  footsteps.  The  blunder, 
it  seems  to  me,  rests  with  the  author  of  the  drawing. 

All  this  is  merely  an  attempt  to  show  what  has  been  known  for 
a  long  time :  the  Swan  sketch,  even  if  it  be  correct,  cannot  be  used 
to  prove  the  prevalence  of  the  vorhanglose  Biihne  before  1603,  or 
to  mark  any  step  in  the  development  of  Elizabethan  staging  or 
stage-structure.  It  is  at  most  an  astonishing  exception.  If  this  is 
true,  if  three  entrances,"^*  upper  stages,  and  stage  curtains  were  ap- 
parently regular  features  of  early  theatres,  there  seems  to  be  at 
least  no  a  priori  reason  for  thinking  that  the  "alcove"  or  "ean- 

'^Reynolds,  Some  Principles,  I,  pp.  7-8. 


THE   STRUCTURAL   ELEMENTS  OF   THE   ELIZABETHAN   STAGE         31 

opy"  stage  did  not  exist  at  the  two  earlier  theatres  as  well  as  at 
the  Rose. 

I  agree  with  Neuendorff  that  such  a  type  of  stage  was  the  result 
of  study  and  experience.  There  were,  however,  abundant  oppor- 
tunities for  all  these  things  long  before  Burbage  built  his  theatre; 
there  were  abundant  suggestions  for  such  a  form  of  stage,  sugges- 
tions, too,  which  could  hardly  have  failed  to  appeal  to  the  wide- 
awake Burbage,  himself  a  carpenter.  Before  discussing  these  sug- 
gestions and  the  probable  origin  of  the  "alcove"  or  "canopy" 
stage  —  good  a  iwiori  grounds  for  its  early  existence  —  it  is  neces- 
sary to  discuss  at  some  length  the  inn-yard  in  its  relationship  to 
the  first  regular  theatres. 


II.     THE   INN-YARDS  AND   THE   EARLY   THEATRES 

Speaking  of  the  performance  of  plays  at  inns,  Malone  ^  wrote 
early  in  the  nineteenth  century:  "We  may  suppose  the  stage  to 
have  been  raised  in  this  area  [the  inn-yard],  on  the  fourth  side, 
"wdth  its  back  to  the  gateway  of  the  inn,  at  which  the  money  for  ad- 
mission was  taken.  Thus,  in  fine  weather,  a  playhouse  not  incom- 
modious might  have  been  formed".  Ever  since  this  conjecture  was 
made,  it  has  been  customary  to  regard  the  inn-yard  as  the  regular 
and  preferred  place  for  public  plays  before  the  building  of  the  first 
permanent  theatres,  and  to  see  in  it  the  structural  original  of  these 
Elizabethan  institutions.  But  was  this  actually  the  case?  /That 
inn-yard  influence  in  the  construction  of  the  early  theatres  is  pos- 
sible, I  would  of  course  not  deny,  but  that  the  inn-yard  was  the 
favorite  place  for  theatrical  performances,  or  that  it  was  structur- 
ally the  original  of  the  first  theatres  is  at  least  questionable.  The 
view  that  the  inn-yard  stage  served  as  a  model  for  that  at  the  Thea- 
tre or  Curtain  is  almost  certainly  untenable,  as,  I  believe,  the  fol- 
lowing pages  will  show. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  discussion  it  must  be  said  that  the  pre- 
sentation of  plays  in  inn-yards  cannot  be  questioned.  The  Act  of 
the  Common  Council  of  Dec.  6,  1574,^  begins:  "Whereas  heareto- 
fore  sondrye  greate  disorders  and  Inconvenyences  have  beene  found 
to  ensewe  to  this  Cittie  by  the  inordynate  hauntyinge  of  greate 
multitudes  of  people  speciallye  youthe,  to  playes,  enterludes,  and 
shewes  namelye  occasyon  of  ffrayes  and  quarrelles,  eavell  prac- 
tizes of  incontinencye  In  greate  Innes,  havinge  chambers  and  secrete 
places  adioyninge  to  their  open  stagies  and  gallyries",  etc. 

"Open  stagies  and  gallyries"  surely  refers  to  the  stage  erected 
in  the  yard  and  to  the  galleries  of  the  inn.  All  the  evils  of  per- 
formances, however,  were  not  confined  to  inn-yard  performances, 
as  is  shown  in  the  words,  "allso  soundrye  slaughters  and  mayhem- 
inges  of  the  Queues  Subiectes  have  happened  by  ruines  of  Skaffoldes 
fframes  and  Stagies,  and  by  engynes  weapons  and  powder  used  in 
plaies".^    Nor  does  the  passage  first  quoted  necessarily  mean  that 

^  Malone-Boswell,  Shakespeare  of  1821,  III,  72. 

2  Malone  Soc,  Collections,  I,  2,  p.  175. 

^  Ibid.,  p.  175.  Is  this  a  reference  to  mystery  plays  and  pageants,  or  did  the  Council 
have  in  mind  "skaffoldes"  and  "fframes"  erected  in  the  halls  of  inns  or  in  the  yard 
itself? 


THE  INN-YARDS  AND  THE  EARLY  THEATRES  33 

the  majority  of  plays  were  being  performed  in  inn-yards.  This  is 
shown  by  the  numerous  references  to  early  plays  in  guild-halls, 
etc.,*  and  by  the  words  in  the  document  quoted  above:  "Be  yt 
enacted  ....  that  no  Inkeper  Tavernekeper  nor  other  per- 
son what  soeu'  wthin  the  liberties  of  thys  Cittie  shall  openlye 
shewe  or  playe  nor  cawse  or  suffer  to  be  openlye  shewed  or  played 

wthin  the  hous  yarde  or  anie  other  place And  that  no 

person  shall  suffer  anie  plays  enterludes  Comodyes,  Tragidies  or 
shewes  to  be  played  or  shewed  in  his  hous  yarde  or  other  place  ".^ 

A  decree  of  May  12,  1569,  reads:  "Forasmuch  as  thoroughe 
the  greate  resort,  accesse  and  assembles  of  great  numbers  of  multi- 
tides  of  people  unto  diverse  and  severall  Innes  and  other  places 
of  this  Citie,  and  the  liberties  &  suburbes  of  the  same,  to  thentent 
to  here  and  see  certayne  Stage  playes,  enterludes,  and  other  dis- 
guisinges,  on  the  Saboth  dayes  and  other  solempne  feastes  com- 
maunded  by  the  church  to  be  kept  holy,  and  there  being  close 
pestered  together  is  Small  romes,  specially  in  this  tyme  of  Sommer, 
all  not  being  [clene]  and  voyd  of  infeccions  and  diseases,  whereby 
great  infeccion  ....  may  arise  and  growe  [it  is  ordered] 
.  .  .  .  that  no  mannour  of  parson  or  parsons  whatsoever,  dwell- 
ing or  inhabiting  within  this  Citie  of  London  liberties  and  suburbes 
of  the  same,  being  Inkepers,  Tablekepers,  Tavernours,  hall-kepers 
or  bruers.  Do  or  shall,  from  and  after  the  last  daye  of  this  moneth 
of  May  nowe  next  ensuinge,  untill  the  last  day  of  September  then 
next  following,  take  uppon  him  or  them  to  set  fourth,  eyther  openly 
or  privatly,  anny  Stage  play  or  Interludes,  or  to  permit  or  suffer 
to  be  set  fourth  or  played  with  [in]  his  or  there  mansion  howse, 
yarde.  Court,  Garden,  orchard,  or  other  place  or  places  whatsoever 
.  .  .  .  anny  mannour  of  Stage  play,  Enterlude,  or  other  dis- 
giusing  whatsoever".® 

The  objection  that  persons  in  plague  time  were  "close  pestered 
together  in  small  romes"  perhaps  determined  the  phraseology  of 
the  letter  of  May  20,  1572,  to  the  Common  Council,  "written  in 
favor  of  certein  persones  to  have  in  there  bowses,  yardes,  or  backe 
sydes,  being  overt  &  open  places,  such  playes,  enterludes,   Com- 

■*  Murray,  Eng.  Dram.  Companies,  II,  passim.. 

"  Malone  Society,  Collections,  I,   2,  pp.   176-77. 

8  Harrison,  Desc.  of  Eng.,  ed.  Furnivall,  IV,  315-17. 


34   THE   COURT   AND   THEATRES   DURING   THE   REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH 

medies,  &  tragedies  as  maye  tende  to  represse  vyce  &  extoll  ver- 
twe '  'J  And  in  view  of  what  precedes,  it  appears  that  interior  per- 
formances rather  than  performances  in  the  open  yards  were  re- 
garded as  particularly  dangerous  by  the  Privy  Council,  which  de- 
creed on  June  22,  1600:  "And  especially  it  is  forbidden  that  any 
stage  plays  shall  be  played  (as  sometimes  they  have  been)  in  any 
common  inn,  for  public  assembly  in  or  near  about  the  city". 

Plays,  then,  were  being  presented  inside  taverns  and  inns  as  well 
as  in  the  yards.®  Not  giving  this  fact  due  consideration,  some 
scholars  have  too  rashly  concluded  that  the  various  references  of 
the  time  to  performances  in  or  at  inns  refer  in  all  eases  to  inn- 
yard  theatricals.  Child,^  for  example,  remarks  that  when  Elizabeth 
came  to  the  throne,  "the  usual  places  of  public  theatrical  perform- 
ances were  certain  innyards.  An  account  written  in  1628  enumer- 
ates five  of  these  yards,  where  plays  were  publicly  performed." 
And  he  mentions  the  Bell,  Bull,  Bell  Savage,  Whitefriars,  "nigh 
Pauls".  This  is  obviously  a  reference  to  a  passage  quoted  by 
Prynne  ^^  from  Rawlidge's  Monster  Lately  Found  Out,  which  Hal- 
liwell  had  interpreted  as  referring  to  the  "yards"  of  certain  well- 
known  inns.^^ 

The  passage,  however,  does  not  speak  of  inn-yards,  but  of  "the 
playhouses  in  Gracious-street",  etc.  Nor  is  it  certain  that  White- 
friars and  "nigh  Pauls"  were  really  inns.  At  least  it  should  be 
noted  that  "Blackfriars",  which  Fleay,^-  and  others  misled  by  the 
inn-yard  theory,  pronounced  an  inn,  was  far  from  such  ;^^  and  that 
Paul 's  Children  probably  performed,  not  at  an  inn,  but  in  the  music 
room  of  St.  Gregory's  and  the  yard  adjoining  the  Convocation 
House.^*  Howe,  too,  writing  about  the  same  time  that  Rawlidge 
wrote,  it  should  be  remembered,  says  that  five,^^  and  not  eight,^^ 

1 1bid.,  p.   318. 

8  The  assertions  in  1559  of  II  Schifanoya  and  Paulo  Tiepolo  that  undesirable  plays 
were  being  presented  in  London  taverns  and  hostels  apparently  have  reference  to  interior 
performances    (Cal.   State  Papers,   Venice,   1558-1580,   pp.   27,   65,    71.). 

*Camb.  Hist.  Eng.  Lit.,  VI,  p.  282. 

^''  Histrioniastix,  pp.  441-42. 

^^  Illvgtrations  of  Shakespeare,  p.  42. 

^Hist.   of  Stage,  pp.   36,  367-68. 

"  Cf.  Peuillerat  in  Shakespeare  Jahrbuch,  XLVIII,  81  flf. 

"  Baker,  Development  of  Shakespeare,  pp.   45-46. 

"Harrison,  Desc.  of  Eng..  ed.  Furnivall,  Forewords  to  Pt.  II,  p.  49. 

'"  Fleay  (Stage,  pp.  367-68)  enumerates  as  inns  regularly  used  for  plays  the  White- 
friars, "nigh  Pauls",  Blackfriars,  Bell,  Bull,  Bell  Savage,  Boar's  Head  and  Cross  Keys. 


THE  INN- YARDS  AND  THE  EARLY  THEATRES  35 

common  hostelries  had  been  turned  into  theatres ;  while  Stockwood, 
preaching  in  1578  when  the  Theatre,  Curtain  and  Blackfriars  were 
in  operation,  asserted  that  he  knew  of  "eighte  ordinarie  places  in 
the  Citie"  where  plays  were  presented.^'^ 

But  even  granting  that  Rawlidge's  "playhouses"  were  inns, 
then  is  it  at  all  certain  that  actors  preferred  to  act  in  the  yards  of 
such  structures  rather  than  in  the  great  halls?  To  be  sure,  one 
of  Tarleton  's  Jests  ^®  seems  to  point  to  a  stage  in  the  yard  of  the 
Bull.  "At  the  Bull  in  Bishops-gate-street",  we  are  told,  "where 
the  Queenes  players  often  times  played,  Tarleton  comming  on  the 
stage,  one  from  the  gallery  threw  a  pippin  at  him."  "Gallery"  cer- 
tainly implies  the  gallery  around  the  yard,  though  the  casting  of  an 
apple  by  a  fellow  who  had  a  "quean  to  his  wife"  perhaps  does  not 
agree  with  the  accepted  view  that  this  gallery  was  reserved  for  the 
better  class  of  spectators.  Of  more  significance  is  the  statement  of 
Flecknoe  ^^  in  1664,  that  the  early  actors  were  "without  any  certain 
Theaters  or  set  Companies,  till  about  the  beginning  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beths Reign  they  began  here  to  assemble  into  Companies,  and  set 
up  Theatres,  first  in  the  City  (as  in  the  Inn-yards  of  the  Cross- 
Keyes  and  Bull  in  Grace  and  Bishops-gate  Street  at  this  day  is  to 
be  seen.)  " 

The  lateness  of  this  document  and  its  vagueness  make  it  of 
little  value  in  our  discussion.  Flecknoe  may  possibly  mean  that 
"Theatres"  had  been  recently  set  up  and  were,  in  1664,  being  used 
for  plays  at  the  Bull  and  Cross  Keys.  The  passage  more  probably 
means,  however,  that  the  "Theatres"  erected  in  the  yards  of  the 
Bull  and  Cross  Keys,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  were  still  to  be  seen. 
It  is  difficult  to  believe,  however,  that  structures  erected  in  such 
places  would  have  remained  in  existence  for  over  sixty  years,'° 
including  the  destructive  period  of  the  Commonwealth.^^    Certainly 

"  Harrison,  Desc.   of  Eng.,   ed.   Furnivall,   IV,   335. 

"S/i.  Soc.  Pub.,  II,  pp.   13-14. 

^' Short  Discourse  of  the  Eng.  Stage  (Spingarn,  Seventeenth  Century  Critical  Essays, 
II,  93). 

^Tleay,  Hist,  of  Stage,  pp.  367-8,  dates  the  Bull  1560-76,  the  Cross  Keys  1589-94. 
That  performances  in  inns  were  uncommon  after  1600  is  implied  in  the  act  of  the  Privy 
Council  of  June  22,  1600:  "And  especially  it  is  forbidden  that  any  stage  plays  shall  be 
played  (as  sometimes  they  have  been)  in  any  common  inn,  for  publick  assembly  in  or 
near  about  the  city"  (cf.  Malone,  Soc.  Collections,  I,  1,  p.  88).  The  large  number  of  play- 
houses in  use  after  1600  implies  also  the  infrequency  of  performances  at  inns. 

-'  For  the  ordinance  of  1647  for  the  destruction  of  playing  places,  see  Hazlitt,  Eng. 
Drama  and  Stage,  p.  68.  For  the  destruction  of  theatres  during  the  period,  see  Academy, 
Oct.,  1882,  p.  315. 


36    THE    COURT    AND   THEATRES   DURING   THE   REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH 

this  would  not  have  happened  had  the  inn-yard  "theatres"  been 
simple  or  removable  structures.  If  Flecknoe's  statement  is  to  be 
accepted  to  prove  the  inn-yards  to  be  the  regular  places  for  per- 
formances, then,  it  is  to  be  also  used  to  show  that  actors  did  not 
regard  them  as  ready-made  places  for  plays.  Furthermore  Howe's 
earlier  statement  that  five  common  hostelries  had  been  turned  into 
theatres  suggests  improvements.  Stockwood's  statement  in  1578, 
that  there  were  "eight  ordinarie  places"  in  London  for  plays, 
together  wdth  Harrison 's  very  uncertain  passage  ^^  describing  the 
banishment  in  1572  of  plays  out  of  London  and  the  reflection  that 
it  is  a  sign  of  evil  times  "when  plaiers  wexe  so  riclie  that  they 
can  build  suche  houses",  may  indicate,  too,  that  inn-yards  were 
by  no  means  regarded  as  ready-made  theatres  even  before  1576. 

There  is  also  one  bit  of  evidence  which  seems  to  contradict 
Flecknoe's  statement  that  the  regular  "playing  place"  at  the  Bull 
was  located  in  the  yard.  On  July  1,  1582,  the  Earl  of  Warwick 
wrote  to  the  Lord  Mayor  asking  permission  for  John  David  to 
play  his  prize  at  fencing  at  the  Bull  in  Bishopsgate.  On  the  23 
of  the  same  month  he  again  wrote  complaining  of  the  Mayor's 
ignoring  his  request.  In  the  reply  of  the  latter  appear  the  words : 
"Onely  I  did  restraine  him  from  playeng  in  an  Inne,  w"*^  was 
somewhat  to  close  for  infection  and  appointed  him  to  playe  in  an 
open  place  of  the  leaden  hall  more  fre  from  danger".  Further 
on  he  writes :  "I  have  herein  yet  further  done  for  yor  servante 
what  I  may,  that  is  that  if  he  obtaine  lawfully  to  playe  at  the 
Theatre  or  other  open  place  out  of  the  Citie,  he  hath  and  shall  have 
my  permition",  etc.-^  "Close"  contrasted  with  "open"  certainly 
implies  interior  performances  in  inns  where  conditions  were  es- 
pecially favorable  for  the  spreading  of  the  plague.-*  These  pas- 
sages, taken  with  those  cited  above,  show  in  all  probability  what 

'^Description  of  Eng.,  ed.  Furnivall.  Cf.  Fumivall's  note,  Pt.  I,  pp.  liv-v.  Cf.  also 
Ordish,  London  Theatres,  pp.  31-32,  and  Chambers  in  Academy,  Aug.  24,   1895. 

^  Malone   Soc,    Collections,   I,    1,   p.   57. 

^  Maas  (Englischen  Theatretruppen,  p.  28),  is  inclined  to  regard  the  Bull  as  the 
regular  winter  theatre  of  the  Queen's  Men  on  account  of  its  being  inside  the  city ;  and 
for  the  same  reason  he  regards  (p.  82)  the  Cross  Keys  as  the  winter  headquarters  of 
the  Chamberlain's  Men.  It  is  not  at  all  improbable  that  inns  were  especially  desired  for 
winter  performances,  not  only  on  account  of  their  proximity  to  the  center  of  population, 
but  also  because  their  large  halls  were  well  adapted  to  plays  in  bad  weather  during 
winter.  Performances  at  the  open  theatres,  however,  were  common  in  winter.  See  Mur- 
ray, Eng.  Dram.  Companies,  I,  118,  126,  130;  Halliwell,  Illustrations,  44;  Henslowe'a 
Diary,  ed.  Greg,  II,  58,  etc. 


THE  INN- YARDS  AND  THE  EARLY  THEATRES  37 

was  the  real  condition  of  affairs;  that  is,  actors  performed  some- 
times in  the  yards,  sometimes  in  the  halls  of  the  inns  used  regu- 
larly for  theatrical  purposes.  Wlien  plays  were  to  be  presented 
during  rain  -^  or  darkness,  the  actors  M'ould  naturally  use  the 
halls ;  when  danger  of  the  plague  was  imminent,  they  would  repair 
to  the  "open"  yards. 

Another  thing  must  be  considered.  It  is  apparent  that  when 
London  plaj^ers  traveled  in  the  pro%ances,  they  preferred  to  set 
up  their  stages,  not  in  the  inn-yards,  but  in  the  town-halls.  This 
is  well  brought  out  in  the  various  licences  and  petitions  of  the 
time.  The  licence  of  1574  granted  to  Burbage  and  others  does  not 
specify  that  they  are  allowed  to  perform  in  town-halls;  but  that 
this  was  taken  for  granted  and  they  set  up  their  stages  where 
they  pleased,  is  implied  in  early  documents.-^  On  Feb.  16,  1595, 
Lord  Dudley  issued  a  warrant  to  Francis  Coffyn  and  Richard 
Bradshaw  "to  travel  in  the  quality  of  playing  and  to  use  music  in 
all  cities,  towns  and  corporations",  requesting  for  them  "the  use  of 
the  Towne  Hall  or  other  place  and  countenance".-^  In  Dec.  1606, 
Derby  wrote  the  Mayor  of  Chester  regarding  his  players,  adding 
in  a  postscript,  "I  would  request  you  to  lett  them  have  the  toune 
hall  to  playe  in  the  hall."  -* 

The  licence  to  the  King's  Players  in  1603  takes  care  to  specify 
that  the  players  are  allowed  to  play,  not  only  at  the  Globe,  but 
"alsoe  within  anie  tO"UTie  halls  or  Moute  halls  or  other  conveniente 
places"  in  the  outlying  towns. -^  This  last  phrase  is  repeated  in  the 
licence  of  1604  to  the  Queen's  Players,^"  and  in  that  of  1606  to 
Prince  Henry's  Players  ^^  and  that  of  1609  to  the  Queen's  Ser- 
vants.^^  "Schoole  howses"  and  "guildhalls"  are  added  in  the 
licences  of  1610  and  1611  to  the  Duke  of  York's  Players  ^^  and 

2*  In  the  early  unroofed  corrals  in  Spain,  says  Rennert,  (Spanish  Stage,  pp.  28-29) 
■a  rain  storm  brought  a  sudden  end  to  theatrical  performances. 

^iWhitgift's  Works,  Parker  Soc,  III,  384;  Third  Blast  of  Retrait,  (Hazlitt,  Drama 
and  Stage,  p.   134). 

'"  Murray,   II,   42. 

'^Ibid.,  p.  234. 

»Malone  Soc,  Collections,  I,  3,  p.  264. 

'"Ibid.,   p.   266. 

«Malone  Soc,   Collections,  I,   3,  p.  269. 

«/bid.,  p.  270. 

**Ibid.,  p.  273. 


38   THE   COURT   AND   THEATRES   DURING   THE   REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH 

those  of  Lady  Elizabeth,^*  while  that  to  the  Elector  Palatine's 
Servants  ^^  in  1613  and  the  one  to  the  King's  Men  ^®  in  1619  return 
to  the  older  phraseology. 

Now  this  specific  mentioning  of  mote-halls  and  town-halls  was 
due  to  the  fact  that  actors  desiring  to  perform  in  these  places  met 
with  opposition  by  the  various  city  governments.  Fearing  that  city 
documents  and  other  property  might  be  damaged  ^^  by  such  per- 
formances, the  ]\Iayor  and  his  associates  sometimes  bought  off 
licenced  players,  as  was  the  case  at  Leicester '^^  in  1588  and  1589, 
where  a  resolution  had  been  passed  on  November  17,  1582,  that  no 
players  except  those  of  the  Queen  and  Lords  of  the  Privy  Council 
were  to  be  suffered  "to  playe  att  the  TowTie  Hall  ....  and 
then  butt  onlye  before  the  Mayor  &  his  bretherne '  '.^^  Sometime  be- 
tween 1600  and  1622,  the  authorities  at  Worcester  decreed  "that  noe 
playes  bee  had  or  made  in  the  upper  end  of  the  Towne-hall  of  this 
city,  nor  council  chamber  used  by  any  players  whatsoever,  and 
that  noe  playes  be  had  or  made  in  yeald  by  night  tyme,  and  yf  anie 
players  be  admytted  to  play  in  the  yeald  hall  to  be  admytted  to 
play  in  the  lower  end  onlie".*°  At  a  later  date,  1623,  a  law  was 
passed  at  Southampton,  prohibiting  further  performances  in  the 
town-hall,  since  plays  there  were  "very  hurtfuU  troublesome  and 
inconvenyent  for  that  the  table,  benches  and  fourmes  theire  sett 
and  placed  for  holdinge  the  Kinges  Courtes  are  by  those  meanes 
broken  and  spoyled".*^ 

Such  records  as  these,  as  well  as  the  numerous  references  to 
town-hall  performances,  show  pretty  clearly  what  the  players  re- 
garded as  the  most  desirable  place  in  which  to  set  up  their  stages. 
The  remark  of  Chambers  *^  that  after  giving  their  first  performance, 
"the  "Mayor's  play",  in  the  guild-hall,  actors  "would  find  a  pro- 
fitable pitch  in  the  courtyard  of  some  old-fashioned  inn  with  its 
convenient  range  of  outside  galleries",  does  not  seem  to  be  borne 

^Ibid.,  p.  274. 

^  Ibid.,  p.  276. 

3«  Ibid.,  p.  281. 

"^  For  damage  done  in  town-halls,  see  Murray,  II,  pp.  310,  333,  309. 

»8  Murray,  II,  pp.  303,  306.     Cf.  also  p.  386. 

"'Ibid.,  p.  319. 

*°Ibid.,  p.  409. 

"  Murray,   II,   400-401. 

"Mediaeval  Stage,  II,   190. 


THE  INN-YARDS  AND  THE  EARLY  THEATRES  39 

out  entirely  by  the  records.  They  obviously  preferred  the  town- 
hall  and  used  it  when  possible.  This  may  be  partly  due  to  the  fact 
that  night  performances  were  rather  frequent  in  the  provinces. 
It  may  be,  too,  that  plays  at  inns  are  not  regularly  mentioned  in 
the  city  records;  yet  in  spite  of  this  possibility,  one  is,  I  believe, 
warranted  in  thinking  that  actors  as  a  rule  found  it  desirable  to 
use  the  town-hall  whenever  possible,*^  rather  than  to  set  up  their 
stages  in  the  inn-yards  which  have  so  often  been  called  ready-made 
theatres  for  dramatic  performances.  Under  such  circumstances 
the  question  naturally  arises  whether  after  all  the  London  theatres 
were  so  much  indebted  structurally  to  the  inn-yard  as  has  been 
generally  supposed. 

Some  of  the  so-called  "survivals"  of  the  inn-yard  period  are 
of  no  value  one  way  or  the  other  in  any  attempt  to  show  whether 
the  inn-yard  was  or  was  not  the  structural  original  of  the  public 
theatre.  The  fact,  for  example,  that  both  inns  and  theatres  were 
provided  with  signs  has  no  weight,  when  we  remember  that  tene- 
ments, brewing-houses,  stews,  printing-shops,  and  other  Elizabethan 
institutions  were  likewise  equipped  with  these  conveniences.  The 
term  "Yard",  said  to  have  been  carried  over  into  the  theatre  from 
its  immediate  prototype,  is  virtually  the  inevitable  term  to  be  ap- 
plied to  a  ground  space  closed  in  on  four  sides.  The  inn  as  the 
usual  adjunct  of  an  Elizabethan  theatre  was,  says  Ordish,**  "a 
survival  of  the  inn-yard  performances".  The  Elizabethans,  how- 
ever, had  a  sense  for  business  as  well  as  the  men  who  at  the  present 
time  conduct  bars  as  adjuncts  to  their  theatres. 

Other  matters  deserve  more  consideration.  Getting  his  idea 
from  the  Swan  picture,  Mr.  Appleton  Morgan  *^  asserts  that  the 
putting  of  the  entrance  at  the  side  of  the  stage  instead  of  at  the 

"  It  is  worth  while  to  note  that  the  few  cases  of  performances  at  inns  recorded  in 
the  provincial  towns  —  I  have  found  no  specific  reference  to  an  inn-yard  performance  — 
were  probably  the  result  of  the  actors'  inability  to  secure  the  town-hall  (cf.  Murray,  II, 
304,  321-2,  328).  With  these  records  should  be  compared  the  statement  of  1583  that 
Worcester's  Men  after  having  been  refused  the  privilege  of  playing  at  Norwich,  neverthe- 
less "dyd  play  in  their  hoste  his  house"  (ibid.,  336),  and  the  words  concerning  Lord 
Beauchamp's  Men,  who  in  1590  met  with  the  same  difficulty,  "yett  notwithstanding 
.  .  .  .  did  sett  up  bills  .  .  .  and  did  playe  in  Xxe  Churche"  (ibid.,  p.  25). 
For  plays  in  churches,  see  Murray,  II,  25,  327,  381-2,  402;  Chambers,  Med.  Stage, 
II,   191. 

**  Early   London   Theatres,   p.    158. 

*^  Bankside  Titus  Andronicus,  Introduction,  p.  28. 


40   THE    COURT   AND    THEATRES   DURING    THE    REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH 

opposite  end  of  the  yard  is  "  a  blind  following  of  the  inn-yard  cus- 
tom". But  what  he  regards  as  the  entrance  to  the  Swan  was  not 
intended  to  represent  such.  The  ''ingressus"  is  simply  a  rough 
attempt  to  draw  an  entrance  to  the  "orchestra".  There  is  another 
one  opposite  to  it. 

The  public  theatres  were  roofless,  we  are  sometimes  led  to  be- 
lieve, because  roofs  were  lacking  at  their  immediate  prototypes ; 
but  surely  the  real  reason  that  prompted  Burbage  and  Langley 
to  construct  open  houses  rather  than  roofed  ones  was  something 
other  than  a  lazy  or  blind  inclination  to  follow  inn-yard  precedent. 
Easy  and  adequate  lighting  and  general  publicity*^  in  stage  pre- 
sentation were  no  doubt  weighty  considerations;  but  of  prime  im- 
portance was  the  necessity  of  meeting  the  growing  complaint  that 
playing  houses  were  "somewhat  to  close  for  infection",  the  "state 
of  pestilence"  where  plague-inflicted  persons  were  accustomed  to 
be  "pestered  together  in  Small  romes,  specially  in  this  tyme  of 
Sommer".  This  objection,  as  we  have  already  seen,  actors  had 
attempted  to  meet  by  presenting  their  plays  in  courts  and  inn- 
yards  ;  to  meet  the  same  objection  Burbage  and  his  followers  erected 
"overt  &  open  places"  for  their  performances.  And  under  the 
circumstances  there  seems  to  be  no  special  reason  for  believing  that 
the  idea  of  a  roofless  structure  was  suggested  by  the  inn-yards 
rather  than  by  the  "game  houses",  banqueting  houses  or  bear  gar- 
dens of  the  period.  At  least  actprs  were  not  following  inn-yard 
precedent  blindly. 

It  is  often  said  that  the  old  inn-yard  principle  of  the  removable 
stage  was  adopted  in  the  public  theatres  because  of  the  desire  to 
use  them  for  games  of  activity  as  well  as  for  plays.  I  am  not 
aware,  however,  of  any  evidence  for  believing  the  stage  was  a  re- 

*"  The  objection  to  plays  in  private  houses  is  well  brought  out  in  Bishop  Babington's 
discussion  on  the  Ten  Commandments  (1588):  "If  they  [plays]  be  dangerous  on  the  day 
time,  more  daungerous  on  the  night  certainely:  if  on  a  stage,  &  in  open  courtes,  much 
more  in  chambers  and  private  houses.  For  there  are  manie  roumes  beside  that  where 
the  play  is,  &  peradventure  the  strangenes  of  the  place  &  lacke  of  light  to  guide  them, 
causeth  errour  in  their  way,  more  than  good  Christians  should  in  their  houses  suffer." 
(Forewords  to  Pt.  I  of  Stubbe's  Anatomy  of  Abuses,  p.  83)  Babington  may  have  had  in 
mind  only  private  theatricals  at  the  houses  of  the  nobility,  but  it  is  entirely  probable  that 
he  was  also  referring  to  performances  inside  inns  or  private  houses  used  frequently  for 
plays.  In  this  connection  should  be  compared  the  phraseology  of  the  various  decrees 
cited  above  and  the  words  of  Grindal  in  1563,  that  it  would  be  a  good  thing  if  players 
could  be  banished  permanently  from  London  as  well  as  "the  owners  of  the  houses  where 
they  play  their  lewd  interludes".   (Remains,  Parker  Sac,  p.  269). 


THE  INN- YARDS  AND  THE  EARLY  THEATRES  41 

movable  one  at  the  Theatre,  Curtain,  Rose,  Swan,  Globe  or  Fortune. 
The  Swan  picture,  which  certainly  seems  to  represent  a  fixed  stage, 
cannot  be  used  as  evidence.  Nor  are  the  Messalina  and  Roxana 
pictures,  which  imply  a  similar  kind  of  stage,  of  much  value  in 
this  connection,  since  they  are  late  and  both  may  represent  condi- 
tions at  private  houses.  The  "heavens"  and  pillars  resting  upon 
the  stage  at  the  Fortune,  which  was  modeled  after  the  Globe,  cer- 
tainly argue  that  these  theatres  had  fixed  stages.  The  Rose  like- 
wise had  "heavens";  and  there  is  nothing  against  believing  that 
the  pillars  supporting  this  structure  rested  upon  the  stage.  As 
we  shall  see  later  in  connection  with  the  Hope,  a  special  arrange- 
ment was  necessary  when  a  theatre  had  both  "heavens"  and  a  re- 
movable platform. 

Again  it  is  difBcult  to  comprehend  how  various  scenes  called  for 
in  early  plays  could  have  been  presented  at  all  acceptably  on  a  re- 
movable stage.  Surely  for  the  successful  manipulation  of  as- 
cending and  descending  ghosts  and  devils,  and  for  the  adequate  ex- 
ecution of  scenes  in  the  "cellerage",  more  depth  was  necessary  than 
would  have  been  possible  beneath  a  mere  platform  which  could  be 
removed  whenever  the  "yard"  was  to  be  used  for  bear  baiting. 
"Hell",  the  regular  name  for  the  cellerage,  must  have  been  a  sort 
of  excavation  boxed  in  and  concealed  from  the  audience  by  the 
three  sides  of  a  permanent  stage.  "Hell"  and  "cellerage"  are 
good  terms  for  such  an  excavated  space. 

Games  of  activity  were,  to  be  sure,  probably  practiced  at  all 
the  theatres  mentioned  above,  but  they  seem  to  have  been  confined 
to  such  things  as  tumbling,  wrestling  and  fencing.  For  such  sports 
an  elevated  platform  is  certainly  preferable  to  the  ground  itself  in 
the  midst  of  spectators.  In  the  case  of  bear  and  bull  baiting  the 
reverse  is  true ;  hence  the  question  arises  as  to  whether  such  sports 
were  regularly  held  in  the  earlier  theatres. 

Scholars  have  generally  assumed  that  bulls  and  bears  were 
commonly  baited  at  the  early  theatres  as  well  as  at  the  places  about 
the  city  prepared  especially  for  such  entertainments.  Rendle,  for 
example,  seems  to  say  that  such  sports  were  common  at  the  Curtain 
and  Theatre,  especially  on  Sundays  ;*^  and  Professor  C.  W.  Wallace 

*'  Appendix  I,  p.  xvi  to  Pt.  II  of  Furnivall's  edition  of  Harrison's  Description  of 
England. 


42   THE    COURT    AND   THEATRES   DURING    TPIE    REIGN   OP   ELIZABETH 

asserts  that  bear-baiting  was  held  at  the  Swan.*^  They  have  failed, 
however,  to  give  evidence  for  their  assertions.  Real  evidence,  I 
believe,  for  such  an  opinion  cannot  be  easily  found. 

To  be  sure,  Rye  '*^  condenses  a  passage  from  a  guide-book  by 
Zingerling  (cir.  1610)  as  follows:  "The  theatres  (Theatra  Comoe- 
dorum)  in  which  bears  and  bulls  fight  with  dogs;  also  cock-fight- 
ing." But  can  Zingerling 's  words  be  trusted?  Has  he  confused 
theatres  and  bear-gardens? 

Cases  of  the  word  "theatre"  loosely  used  are  not  difficult  to 
find.  Hentzner,  for  example,  who  traveled  in  England  in  1598, 
states  pretty  clearly  that  bull  baiting  was  not  held  in  the  regular 
theatres.  "Without  the  city",  he  says,  "are  some  theatres,  where 
English  actors  represent  almost  every  day  tragedies  and  comedies 
to  very  numerous  audiences".  And  he  is  very  careful  to  dis- 
tinguish theatres  and  bear  gardens  as  to  their  functions.  "There 
is  still  another  place ' ',  he  continues,  ' '  built  in  the  form  of  a  theatre, 
which  serves  for  the  baiting  of  bulls  and  bears".  Yet  a  few  lines 
further  on,  since  he — like  Zingerling — was  not  acquainted  with  the 
expression  "bear  garden",  he  fails  to  distinguish  terms  in  the 
generalization:  "In  these  theatres,  fruits are  car- 
ried about  to  be  sold,  as  well  as  ale  and  wine." 

Again,  if  the  early  playhouses  were  used  frequently  for  the 
baiting  of  bulls  and  bears,  it  is  rather  surprising  that  the  English 
themselves  do  not  refer  specifically  to  the  fact,  but  on  the  other 
hand  imply  more  than  once  that  the  playhouses  were  constructed 
primarily  for  plays  instead  of  being  a  sort  of  hybrid  between 
theatre  and  amphitheatre.  If  the  baiting  of  animals  were  fre- 
quent at  the  Theatre  and  Curtain,  especially  should  we  expect  to 
find  the  custom  referred  to  in  the  various  legal  documents  of  the 
period.  But  what  do  we  actually  find?  The  order  of  November 
1,  1597,  for  the  destruction  of  these  tw^o  houses,  to  give  a  single  il- 
lustration, after  referring  specifically  to  plays,  advises  that  "those 
playhouses  that  are  erected  and  built  only  for  suche  purposes  shalbe 
plucked  downe,  namelie  the  Curtayne  and  the  Theatre  nere  to 
Shorditch,  or  any  other  within  that  county."^" 

On  the  other  hand,  when  the  Elizabethans  constructed  the  Hope, 

*^Eng.  Stud.,  43,  p.  363  note  2. 

*^ Eng.  As  Seen  by  Foreigners,  p.   133. 

•*  Quoted  by  Gildersleeve,  Gov.  Regulations,  p.  187. 


THE  INN-YARDS  AND  THE  EARLY  THEATRES  43 

which  was  to  serve  both  for  plays  and  the  baiting  of  animals,  it 

is  entirely  natural  that  this  unique  structure  should  be  considered 

an  innovation  worthy  of  special  description.    And  in  no  uncertain 

language  Howe  in  his  continuation  of  Stowe  describes  it  as  "a 

playhouse  for  stage-playes  on  Mondayes,  Wednesdayes,  Fridayes, 

and  Saterdayes;  and  for  the  Baiting  of  the  Beares  on  Tuesdayes 

and  Thursdayes,  the  stage  being  made  to  take  up  and  downe  when 

they  please. ' '  "^    And  that  bear  baiting  was  not  practiced  at  other 

public  playhouses  in  existence  at  the  time  of  writing  is  apparently 

shown  by  the  same  writer,  who  states  that  whereas  various  theatres 

not  mentioned   (i.  e.,  the  Curtain,  Rose,  Swan,  Globe,  Fortune) 

"were  erected  only  for  common  playhouses",  the  "new-built  bear 

garden"  was  "built  as  well  for  plays  and  fencers'  prizes  as  bull 
baiting.  "52 

The  removable  stage,  then,  explains  why  bear  and  bull  bait- 
ing was  possible  at  the  Hope.  And  it  was  an  innovation  in  stage 
structure  considered  worthy  of  specific  mention  by  Howe.  Natural- 
ly, too,  since  the  stage  at  the  Hope  was  to  be  a  removable  one,  pil- 
lars could  not  rest  upon  it  as  they  had  rested  upon  the  fixed  stage 
at  the  Swan. 

It  is  usually  said  that  the  arrangement  of  galleries  in  the  early 
London  theatres  had  its  source  in  the  arrangement  of  galleries 
around  the  inn-yards  in  which  the  actors  were  accustomed  to  per- 
form. Here  again  we  are  at  least  on  uncertain  ground.  We 
have  already  seen  that  actors  did  not  always  seem  inclined  to  take 
advantage  of  this  peculiar  inn-yard  arrangement.  Then,  too,  in 
an  attempt  to  account  for  the  galleries  in  theatres,  the  probability 
of  other  influences  must  be  taken  into  consideration,  especially  the 
repeated  preparation  of  large  halls  with  scaffolds  to  accommodate 
the  spectators  at  private  performances  and  the  nature  of  the  numer- 
ous banqueting-houses  and  ' '  places  of  pleasure ' '  erected  during  the 
century. 

In  the  first  place  it  should  be  pointed  out  that  scaffolds  for  spec- 
tators were  constructed  in  halls  or  palaces  long  before  we  have  any 
record  of  performances  at  inns.^^     The  following  description,  for 

^  Quoted  by  Ordish,  Early  London  Theatres,  p.  240. 

"  Cf.  Forewords  to  Part  II  of  Fumivall's  ed.  of  Harrison's  Desc.   of  Eng.,  p.  49. 

**  The  first  reference  to  plays  at  inns  that  has  been  noted  is  that  of  1557   (Chambers, 

Med.  Stage,   II,    190,    note   1;   Maas,  Eng.  Theatertruppen,  p.   53).      Brooke's   assertion 


44   THE    COURT   AND   THEATRES   DURING   THE   REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH 

example,  dates  from  the  time  of  Henry  VII:  "And  this  yere  was 
a  Roiall  feste  kept  at  Westmynster  by  the  kyng,  on  the  Twelvith 
day,  where  dyned  the  Mayr  and  his  brethir,  and  at  nyght  was  a 
disgysyng  of  xii  ladyes  and  xii  gentilmen.  And  all  the  greate 
hall  was  hanged  wt  Arras,  and  staged  Round  abowte  wt  Tymber, 
that  the  people  myght  easely  behold".^*  In  the  second  year  of 
Henry  VIII 's  reign,  Whitehall  "was  hanged  rychly,  the  Hall  was 
scafolded  and  rayled  on  all  parts",  on  the  occasion  of  a  play  by 
the  Gentlemen  of  the  Chapel,  elaborate  dances,  and  a  movable 
pageant."' 

Among  later  references  to  scaffolded  halls  the  passage  regard- 
ing entertainments  at  the  Temple  in  1562  is  of  interest:  "It  is 
proper  to  the  Butler's  office,  to  give  warning  to  every  House  of 
Court,  of  this  banquet;  to  the  end  that  they,  and  the  Innes  of 
Chancery,  be  invited  thereto,  to  see  a  play  and  mask.  The  hall 
is  to  be  furnished  with  skaffolds  to  sit  on,  for  ladies  to  behold 
sports,  on  each  side.  Which  ended,  the  ladyes  are  to  be  brought 
into  the  Library,  unto  the  banquet  there. ' '  ^* 

When  Edward's  Palamon  and  Arcyte  was  presented  at  Oxford 
in  1566,  Bereblock  wrote:  "Along  all  the  walls  balconies  and  scaf- 
foldings were  constructed;  these  had  many  tiers  of  better  seats, 
from  which  noble  men  and  women  might  look  on,  and  the  people 
could  get  a  view  of  the  plays  from  round  about. ' '  "  Much  later 
were  the  erecting  of  scaffolds  at  Gray's  Inn  in  1594  (Gesta  Gray- 
orum,  Nichols,  Elis.,  ed.  1788,  II,  17),  those  in  St.  Mary's  and  Christ 
Church  in  1605  when  James  I  visited  Cambridge,^^  and  the  scaf- 
folds "on  all  partes  filled  with  beholders"  when  Lord  Knowles 
entertained  Queen  Anne  at  his  manor  in  1613.^^ 

(Tudor  Drama,  p.  64)  that  Mankind  was  acted  in  an  inn-yard  is  merely  conjectural. 
It  is  not  at  all  certain  that  it  was  acted  at  an  inn.  The  taking  of  a  collection  with  the 
"goode  man  of  this  house"  as  the  first  victim  is  inconclusive.  The  "goode  man"  need  not 
be  an  innkeeper  rather  than  the  owner  of  a  manor. 

**  Chronicles  of  London,  ed.  Kingsford,  p.  200. 

^  Hall,  Chronicle,  p.  518. 

^  Nichols,  Prog,  of  Eliz.,  ed.  1788,  I,  p.  23. 

'"  Trans,  of  Durand,  Pub.  Mod.  Lang.  Ass'n.,  XIII,  505.  Durand  has  suggested  the 
probable  influence  of  such  structures  on  London  theaters.  I  have  added  little  to  his 
earlier  discussion. 

**  Leland,  Collections,  II,   646. 

*  Virian's  edition  of  Campion,  p.   84. 


THE  INN-YARDS  AND  THE  EARLY  THEATRES  45 

In  connection  with  the  tiers  of  seats  in  palaces  and  theatres, 
another  sixteenth  century  institution  should  be  considered — the 
banqueting-houses  and  places  of  pleasure  common  throughout  the 
period.  The  "banquetynge  hows"  or  "theatre"  erected  by  Henry 
VIII  at  Calais^"  was  made  "with  xvj.  principals  made  of  greate 
mastes,  betwixt  every  maste  xiiij.  fote,  and  all  the  oute  syds  closed 
with  borde  and  canvas  ovar  it,  and  with  in  rownde  abowt  by  the 
syds  were  made  thre  loftes  one  above  anothar  for  men  and  women 
for  to  stond  upon,  and  they  that  stode  behynd  myght  see  over  the 
hedes  that  stode  before,  it  was  made  so  highe  behynd  and  low 
before.  "^^  The  temporary  structure  erected  in  1519  in  the  court- 
yard of  the  Bastille  for  the  entertainment  of  English  ambassadors 
had  ' '  three  tiers  of  balconies  for  the  spectators. ' '  ®-  Along  the  sides 
of  the  house  erected  by  Henry  VIII  "to  be  furnished  for  disgusing 
and  meskelying  of  lords  and  ladies"  were,  according  to  Spinelli,^^ 
"three  tiers  of  seats,  each  of  which  had  a  beam  placed  lengthwise, 
for  the  spectators  to  lean  on,  nor  did  one  tier  interfere  with  the 
other."  The  house,  says  Hall,®*  "was  raised  with  stages  v  degrees 
on  every  syde,  &  rayled  &  countreraled  borne  by  pillars  of  Azure." 
The  banqueting-house  erected  at  Horsley  in  1559  had  at  least  one 
balcony,®^  and  the  "sides"  of  the  one  erected  at  Westminster  in 
1581,  says  Holinshed,®®  "was  made  with  ten  heights  of  degrees  for 
people  to  stand  upon." 

In  view  of  such  conditions,  one  is  inclined  to  accept  Durand's 
remark  ®^  that  it  is  "  entirely  credible  that  the  notion  of  using  the 
innyards  for  plays  was  derived  from  the  previous  experience  of 
the  actors  in  the  great  halls, ' '  and,  one  may  add,  from  their  knowl- 
edge of  such  "places  of  pleasure"  as  have  been  described.     Nor 

*"  Chronicle   of  Calais,  Camden  Soc,  p.   29. 

'1  Another  account  states  that  "around  the  walls  below  the  ceiling  are  three  tiers  of 
balconies  or  stages,  eight  or  nine  feet  deep,  the  parapet  in  front  being  of  the  height  of  a 
man's  waist,  and  the  tiers  raised  10  feet  one  above  the  other,  with  sloping  floors,  so  that 
the  last  look  over  the  first,  and  behold  conveniently  what  is  passing  on  the  ground  floor" 
(Cal.  State  Papers,  Venetian,   1520-6,  p.  32). 

«2  Cal.  State  Papers,  Venetian,  1509-19,  pp.  485-6. 

»3  Ibid.,  1527-33,  p.  59. 

«  Chronicle,  p.   723, 

'>^Doc.  of  Bevels,  ed.  Feuillerat,  p.  106. 

'8  Chronicle,  IV,  434.  For  the  later  structures  of  this  sort  see  Reyher's  account  in 
his  Les  Masques  Anglais. 

^  Pub.  Mod.  Lang.  Ass'n.,  XIII,  526. 


46   THE   COURT   AND   THEATRES    DURING    THE    REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH 

is  it  improbable  that  when  these  actors  undertook  to  build  perman- 
ent houses,  they  went  to  such  structures  for  suggestions  rather  than 
to  the  galleries  of  inns. 

Durand  (p.  527)  has  conjectured,  indeed,  that  the  oval  or 
octagonal  form  of  the  galleries  in  the  permanent  theatres  may 
have  been  suggested  by  the  arrangement  of  the  scaffolding  in  the 
great  halls  where  the  problem  of  making  a  theatre  of  a  rectangular 
space  would  have  naturally  led  to  a  cutting  off  of  corners.  So  far 
as  I  know,  there  is  no  actual  evidence  that  this  was  ever  done  at 
court  performances,  though  at  least  one  of  the  banqueting-houses 
of  Henry  VIII,  the  large  one  erected  at  Calais  in  1520,  is  spoken 
of  in  one  account  ^^  as  having  "16  fronts,"  while  in  another  ^^ 
is  it  called  a  "rotunda."  The  circular  form  of  the  early  theatres, 
however,  need  not  trouble  us.  As  Child  ^°  remarks  in  discussing  the 
various  sources  that  have  been  suggested  for  such  a  form — Roman 
amphitheatres,  Cornish  "rounds,"  circular  stage  settings  of 
mystery  and  morality  plays,  bear  and  bull  rings — the  circle  is 
the  formation  into  which  spectators  naturally  gather  when  they 
desire  to  witness  something  from  various  sides. 

But  even  granting  that  Child  ^^  is  right  in  saying  that  ' '  the  inn- 
yard  was,  doubtless,  responsible  for  the  galleries"  at  the  early 
playhouses,  then  is  it  not  probable  that  suggestions  for  improve- 
ment were  received  through  an  acquaintance  with  a  more  fitting  ar- 
rangement constructed  in  the  halls  and  pleasure  houses  of  the  time  ? 
The  point,  though  trivial,  may  be  illustrated.  The  spaces,  we  are 
told,  in  the  galleries  which  adjoined  the  rooms  of  the  inn  could  be 
treated  as  the  equivalent  of  our  modern  boxes  during  inn-yard 
performances.  "Indeed,"  writes  Professor  Baker,"  ".the  Eliza- 
bethan word  'room'  for  a  theatre  box  held  a  memory  of  these 
spaces  next  the  rooms  of  the  old  inns."  The  word  "room"  how- 
ever, is  a  pretty  general  term ;  and  it  is  not  the  only  word  used  in 
Elizabethan  times  for  the  boxes  in  the  theatres.  It  is  perhaps  worth 
while  to  remark,  too,  that  these  spaces  next  the  rooms  of  inns  were 
not  so  similar  to  theatre  boxes  or  "stalls"  as  were  the  partitions, 

'^Oal.  state  Papers,   Venetian,   1520-6,  p.   32. 

<»Ibid.,  p.  42. 

'"  Camb.  Hist.  Eng.  Lit.,  VI,  p.  283. 

^^Camh.  Hist.  Eng.  Lit.,  VI,  p.  284. 

72  Development  of  Shakespeare,  p.   68. 


THE  INN- YARDS  AND  THE  EARLY  THEATRES  47 

sections,  or  compartments,  for  instance,  constructed  in  the  ban- 
queting-houses  and  scaffolded  lialls,'^  where  spectators  were  ar- 
ranged according  to  rank  or  nationality.  It  is  possible,  too,  that 
these  sections  arranged  for  spectators  were  called  "rooms"  (i.e., 
places)  at  an  early  date.  An  old  writer,  for  example,  describing 
the  elaborately  arranged  hall  at  Westminster  on  the  occasion  of 
Prince  Arthur's  marriage  in  1501,  remarks:  "And  in  this  fore- 
said place  when  the  King  and  the  Queen  had  taken  their  noble 
seates  under  their  Clothes  of  estate  and  euery  other  nobles  were 
ordered  in  their  Roomes  worshipful  and  Convenient  then  began  and 
Entered  this  most  goodly  and  pleasant  disgusing, '  ■* "  etc. 

The  various  things  discussed  above  are  by  no  means  advanced, 
let  me  urge,  as  proof  that  the  early  theatre  did  not  spring  from  an 
inn-yard  original.  They  are  given  to  show  that  there  is  no  con- 
clusive evidence  in  support  of  the  idea  that  the  yard  rather  than 
something  else  ''^  was  the  structural  original  of  the  London  play- 
house, and  that  in  all  probability  no  such  thing  as  a  blind  following 
of  inn-yard  conditions  is  to  be  traced  in  their  architecture.  Hostile 
to  any  such  idea  is  the  very  fact  that  Burbage  and  his  fellows 
constructed  octagonal  or  circular  frames  instead  of  square  or 
rectangular  ones,  that  they  built  boxes  suitable  for  gentlemen  to 
sit  in,  that  they  erected  a  "heavens"  and  "cupola,"  and  that  they 
added  other  features  at  most  but  vaguely  suggested  by  the  so-called 
structural  originals  of  their  houses.  And  obvious  as  such  things 
may  have  been,  they  at  least  argue  that  our  early  theatre-builders 

■^3  It  is  difficult  to  say  just  how  general  these  compartments  were.  They  were  com- 
mon in  the  later  masqueing-houses  (Cf.  Whitelocke,  Memorials,  p.  19;  Reyher,  Les 
Masques  Anglais,  pp.  346-7).  The  banqueting-house  erected  at  Whitehall  in  1572  was 
possibly  provided  with  them.  Cf.  the  entry,  "&  Compartementes,  with  pendentes  &  armes 
paynted  &  gilded  for  the  purpose"  (Doc.  of  Revels,  p.  163).  The  passage  following  from 
a  letter  of  the  Spanish  Ambassador  in  Jan.,  1565,  implies  that  such  arrangements  were 
common.  After  stating  that  he  and  the  Queen  watched  the  tournament  given  by  Leices- 
ter for  some  time  through  a  window  of  the  gallery,  he  continues,  "Cecil  and  the  Chamber- 
lain put  me  in  the  gallery  from  which  the  Queen  generally  sees  the  feasts.  There  were 
three  or  four  compartments  divided  by  cloths,  and  they  took  me  into  one  adjoining  that 
of  the  Queen,  and  adorned  in  the  same  way  as  hers".  The  French  Ambassador  apparent- 
ly occupied  another  compartment.  (Cal.  State  Papers,  Spanish,  1558-67,  p.  403).  Cf. 
also,  Cal.  State  Papers,  Venetian,  1527-33,  p.  59.  On  loges  at  religious  plays  on  the 
Continent,  see  Cohen,  La  Mise  en  Scene,  pp.  244-5. 

■?*  Reyher,  Les  Masques  Anglais,  561;  Collier,  Hist.  Dram.  Lit.,  I,  pp.  58-9,  note. 
Leland,  Collectanea,  V,  p.  359,  reads  "Places",  which  is  all  that  the  word  "Roomes" 
means. 

'"'  It  is  impossible  to  say  whether  the  Elizabethan  theatres  inherited  anything  from 
the  "game  houses",  etc.,  such  as  the  one  erected  in  Yarmoiith  in  1538,  which  are  oc- 
casionally heard  of  at  an  early  date   (Chambers,  Med.  Stage,  II,   188-91,   244). 


48   THE   COURT   AND   THEATRES   DURING   THE   REIGN    OF    ELIZABETH 

were  willing  to  accept  suggestions  from  any  sources  that  were 
readily  accessible.  With  this  fact  in  mind,  let  us  approach  the  con- 
struction of  the  stage  itself. 

Here,  again,  the  inn-yard  has  been  pointed  to  as  a  source ;  and 
Professor  Baker  ^^  has  drawn  a  picture  showing  how  the  gallery  of 
the  inn  was  used  as  a  balcony  beneath  which  was  suspended  a 
curtain  at  the  rear  of  a  projecting  stage.  The  actor,  he  says,^'  after 
suspending  this  curtain  ''used  a  room  or  rooms  across  the  passage 
behind  the  curtain  for  a  dressing  or  'tiring-room.'  "  In  this 
primitive  construction  he  sees  the  original  of  the  Elizabethan 
stage. 

So  far  as  I  am  aware,  however,  there  is  no  evidence  for  such  an 
arrangement  before  or  after  1576.  There  is  no  reason  for  be- 
lieving that  whenever  an  inn-yard  was  used  for  a  dramatic  per- 
formance the  scaffold  or  stage  was  erected  at  one  end  of  the  court 
rather  than  near  the  center.  On  the  other  hand,  I  do  not  know 
why  Mr.  Appleton  Morgan  ^^  asserted  that  for  years  after  the 
permanent  theatres  were  built,  the  stages  in  inn-yards  were  un- 
attached to  any  side  of  the  yard,  as  had  been  the  case  when  early 
moralities  were  performed,  unless  he  had  in  mind  the  earlier  state- 
ment of  Malone  or  the  desire  of  actors  performing  in  large  yards 
to  get  closer  to  the  spectators  in  the  galleries. 

Even  granting,  however,  that  the  arrangement  shown  by  Pro- 
fessor Baker  was  the  original  of  the  Elizabethan  stage,  then  the 
origin  of  the  frontal  doors,  their  peculiar  nature  and  significance 
are  left  entirely  unexplained.  "W.  J.  Lawrence,'®  who  has  recently 
advocated  the  inn-yard  theory,  recognizes  this  fact,  and  consequent- 
ly affirms  that  when  the  first  theatres  were  built,  various  improve- 
ments were  suggested  by  the  inconveniences  of  the  earlier  system 
of  presentation.  "To  some  extent",  he  writes,  "the  aspect  of  the 
tiring  house  recalled  the  background  of  the  older  stage  in  the  inn- 
yards,  but  it  would  appear  that  at  least  one  important  hint  had 
been  taken  from  the  screen  of  the  banquetting  halls  in  the  palaces, 
universities  and  inns  of  court,  halls  in  which  the  players  had  oc- 
casionally given  performances.  From  this  source  came  the  principle 

''*  Development  of  Shakespeare,  p.   200. 
'"Ibid.,   p.   68. 

'*  Bankside  Titus  Andronicus,  Introd.,  p.  27. 
"  Shakespeare  Jahrbuch,  47,  p.  22. 


THE  INN-YAEDS  AND  THE  EARLY  THEATRES  49 

of  the  two  frontal  doors,  forming  the  normal  (but  not  complete) 
method  of  entrance  and  exit." 

Lawrence  may  be  right  in  his  conjecture,  but  I  do  not  believe 
that  his  explanation  is  the  correct  one.  Nor  do  I  think  that  the 
general  structure  of  the  Elizabethan  stage  was  borrowed  from 
Holland,  as  Creizenach  ^°  suggests.  An  origin  nearer  home  can  be 
found.  For  reasons  to  be  given  below,  I  would  derive  the  public 
stage  in  its  essential  elements  from  the  English  court;  or  perhaps  I 
should  say,  it  was  suggested  by  the  court  methods  of  stage  pre- 
sentation. 

^Geschichte,  IV,  pp.  419-20. 


III.  THE  STAGES  AT  COURT  AND  THE  EARLY  THEATRES 

It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  from  about  the  middle  of  the 
century  to  1576,  or  later,  the  majority  of  plays  performed  at  court 
were  presented  by  the  Children  Companies  whose  masters  were 
university  men  or  men  with  the  equivalent  of  a  university  train- 
ing.^ Under  such  circumstances  it  would  not  be  surprising  to  find 
that  these  plays  in  their  method  of  staging  were  affected  more  or 
less  by  the  methods  employed  in  the  schools  and  universities  of 
the  time,  that  the  authors,  writing  for  a  "learned"  court  where 
Rome  was  in  fashion,  and  acquainted  with  the  manner  of  present- 
ing the  comedies  of  Plautus  ^  and  Terence,  should  look  to  the  stage 
called  for  by  the  plays  of  Plautus  and  Terence  for  models  in  pre- 
sentation. This  they  did;  and  many  of  the  earlier  dramas  at  court 
written  by  such  men  were  undoubtedly  staged  in  the  strictly 
classic  manner  as  then  understood. 

These  strictly  classic  plays  observed  the  unity  of  place,  all  of 
the  action  taking  place  before  a  single  house,^  as  in  Jack  Juggler 
or  Ralph  Roister  Doister,  in  a  street  or  "place"  between  two 
houses,*  as  in  Gascoigne's  Supposes  or  in  Gammer  Ourton,  or  some- 

^  Doc.  of  Revels,  ed.  Feuillerat,  passim;  Maas,  Enff.  Theatertruppen,  pp.  151-153; 
Mod.  Lang.  Reveiw,  II,  pp.  2-6.  For  the  Children  of  the  Chapel  and  the  training  of 
their  masters,  see  Manly  in  Camb.  Hist.  Eng.  Lit.,  VI,  322,  Stopes,  William  Hunnis,  pp. 
11,   25,    147. 

^  On  Plautus  and  Terence  in  schools  and  universities,  and  Latin  Comedy  in  England, 
see  Wallace,  Birth  of  Hercules,  Introd.,  Miss  Lee's  ed.  of  Narcissus,  Introd.,  pp.  xiii- 
xiv,  Watson,  Eng.  Grammar  Schools,  pp.  318-24,  Retrospective  Review,  XII,  1  ff., 
Camb.  Hist.  Eng.  Lit.,  V,  pp.  114-16,  Ibid.,  Vol.  VI,  chap,  on  university  plays,  Schelling, 
Eliz.  Drama,  I,   81  ff..  Bond,  Plays  from  the  Italian. 

^  Classic  staging  is  hardly  to  be  traced  in  such  productions  as  New  Custom  (pr. 
1573),  Youth,  (1550?),  Wager's  Longer  Thou  Livest  (1570?),  yet  when  such  plays 
where  the  action  takes  place  near  an  ale-house  or  tavern  were  presented  at  court,  there 
is  always  the  possibility  that  structures  representing  such  places  were  actually  on  the 
stage. 

*  Perhaps  Calisto  and  Melibea  and  Apiua  and  Virginia  should  be  mentioned  here. 
The  date  of  the  former  is  unknown.  If  it  was  acted  at  court,  then  perhaps  a  house  for 
Calisto  and  one  for  Melibea  were  erected  on  the  stage.  Fleay  (Biog.  Chron.,  II,  290)  iden- 
tifies it  with  the  Comodie  of  Bewtie  and  Huswyfery  acted  at  Windsor  in  1583.  This  play 
calls  for  "one  battlement  of  canvas",  which  does  not  seem  to  fit  Calisto  and  Melibea.  In 
Apius  and  Virginia,  acted  by  Children  of  the  Chapel  (Manly,  Camb.  Hist.  Eng.  Lit., 
VI,  320,  says  it  was  written  not  later  than  1551),  perhaps  the  palace  of  Apius  and  the 
house  of  Virginius  were  on  the  stage.  Kven  more  vague  are  the  two  "frames"  (houses?) 
which  were  apparently  used  in  the  historye  of  Mutius  Sceuola  acted  at  Windsor  in  1576 
(Doc.  of  Revels,  p.  266)  and  the  two  "frames"  apparently  employed  in  some  play  in 
1578-9   (ibid.,  p.  299). 


THE  STAGES  AT  COURT  AND  THE  EARLY  THEATRES  51 

times  before  even  three  ^  or  four  ®  houses,  provided  they  were  sup- 
posed to  be  in  close  proximity  to  one  another.  It  is  to  such  houses 
that  the  Revels  Accounts  refer  most  frequently  when  they  mention 
"apte  houses  of  paynted  canvas,"  "Stratoes  howse,"  "Orestioes 
howse"  and  the  like,  rather  than  to  such  houses  as  were  employed 
in  mystery  plays;  that  is,  to  painted  canvas  stretched  on  frames 
representing  houses  that  could  be  entered  by  a  door,  rather  than  to 
such  structures  as  are  seen,  for  example,  in  the  picture  of  the 
Valenciennes  stage;  in  short,  the  houses  (exteriors)  of  the  Roman 
stage  rather  than  the  maisons  (interiors)  of  the  mystery  stage. 

Perhaps  under  the  influence  of  sources,  the  English  romantic 
instinct,  or  the  method  of  presenting  mystery  plays  ^  and  longer 

°  Cf.  Eymenaeus,  perhaps  acted  at  Cambridge  in  March  1578-9  (ed.  of  Smith, 
Introd.  p.  xv).  In  Jocasta  the  palace  was  probably  at  the  rear  of  the  stage  -with  a 
labeled  gate-way  on  each  side  of  it.     A  sacrificial  altar  was  also  on  the  stage. 

*  Biighears  calls  for  either  three  or  four  exteriors.  Fraunce's  Yictoria  has  four  houses 
and  a  temple.  "A  Comodie  or  Morrall  devised  on  A  Game  of  Cardes"  acted  at  court  on 
St.  Stephen's  Night,  1582,  used  "iiii  or  pavilions"  (Doc.  of  Revels,  p.  349).  It  is  hard 
to  say  how  many  houses  were  called  for  in  The  Glass  of  Government.  Cf.  stage  direction 
at  the  end  of  the  first  act,   "They  depart  to  their  houses". 

''  The  influence  of  the  staging  of  mystery  plays  must  not  be  over-emphasized  in 
court  plays.  W.  J.  Lawrence  (Shakespeare  Jahrbuch  XLV,  p.  157)  writes  that  "With 
the  transference  of  the  multiple  setting  [of  mystery  plays]  to  the  indoor  court  play  came 
certain  vital  modifications  of  its  principles.  Questions  of  space  demanded  a  reduction  in 
the  number  of  mansions  employed  and  a  more  compact  system  of  grouping.  The  maxi- 
mum was  now  fixed  at  five,  and  the  mansions  were  generally  arranged  in  sets  of  three 
or  five,  according  to  the  scenic  exigencies".  This  is  essentially  true,  but  it  should  be 
noted  that  the  vast  number  of  court  plays  before  1576  or  even  before  1600  seem  to  de- 
mand only  one,  two,  or  three  viaison^  or  differently  propertied  localities.  The  very  few 
that  seem  to  call  for  four  or  five  are  decidedly  classic.  I  should  prefer,  therefore,  to 
say  that  the  multiple  setting  of  the  mystery  plays  was  not  transferred  to  the  court  stage, 
but  that  it  served  to  modify  the  "classic"  stage.  Says  Vitruvius  speaking  of  the  proper 
setting  for  comedy:  "Aedificiorum  privatorum  et  moenianorum  habent  speciem,  pro- 
[sp]ectusque  fenestris,  dispositos  imitatione  communium  aedificiorum".  (Ed.  Choisy, 
I,  245). 

It  is  entirely  possible  that  in  some  cases  the  workers  at  court  were  not  employing 
the  medieval  method  of  staging  so  much  as  they  were  attempting  to  carry  out  the  instruc- 
tions of  Vitruvius  as  to  the  proper  background  for  the  three  tj-pes  of  drama — tragedy, 
comedy,  satyr — or  the  similar  instructions  of  Sebastiano  Serlio  whose  work  appeared  at 
Paris  in  1545  and  at  Venice  in  1584  (Cf.  Bapst.  Essai.  255).  Serlio  was  apparently 
popular  in  Elizabethan  times  (Notes  and  Queries,  Fifth  Series,  V,  381-2).  Compare  in 
this  connection  the  extracts  from  Robt.  Peake's  1611  transla,tion  of  Serlio  (ibid.)  with  the 
numerous  cities  of  canvas,  etc.,  in  the  Revels  Accounts  and  the  rural  settings  called  for 
in  various  court  plays.  In  Spain  the  instructions  of  Vitruvius  and  Serlio  seem  to  be 
echoed  in  the  comment  (cir.  1595)  of  Alonso  Lopez  Pinciano:  "in  accordance  with  the 
difference  in  time,  besides  the  costumes  of  the  persons  in  the  action,  there  is  required 
a  corresponding  decoration  for  the  theatre  itself,  besides  the  necessary  machinery,  which 
ought  to  be  in  conformity  with  the  poem :  if  it  be  pastoral,  there  should  be  woods ;  if  the 
action  take  place  in  a  city,  there  should  be  houses;  and  so  in  accordance  with  the  other 
differences,  the  theatre  should  have  its  various  decorations"  (Rennert,  Spanish  Stage,  p. 
82  note). 


52   THE   COURT    AND   THEATRES   DURING   THE   REIGN   OP   ELIZABETH 

moralities,  it  is  quite  natural  that  this  "classic  stage"  should  be 
expanded,  so  to  speak.  The  general  plan  of  the  setting  would 
be  kept,  but  instead  of  having  two  houses  separated  by  a  few  feet, 
they  would  be  represented  as  separated  by  considerable  distance. 
And  we  find  this  thing  being  done  in  plays  decidedly  classic.  In 
The  Glass  of  Government  and  Jocasta  the  action,  in  accordance 
with  good  Renaissance  standards,  is  at  most  confined  to  the  walls 
of  a  single  city;  in  Thersites  the  "place"  of  the  Mater  and  Mul- 
ciber's  shop  are  surely  supposed  to  be  more  than  a  few  feet  apart; 
and  in  The  Misfortunes  of  Arthur,  while  the  house  of  Modred  and 
the  cloister  may  be  near  each  other,  the  "house  prepared  for 
Arthur"  was  certainly  supposed  to  be  far  removed  from  them. 
Gorhoduc  is  probably  a  similar  example. 

We  do  not  find  on  the  English  court  stage  one  side  of  the  stage 
being  reserved  for  entrances  from  the  city  or  market-place,  the 
other  side  for  entrances  from  the  country.  "We  do  find,  however, 
a  similar  sort  of  thing,  a  city  being  erected  on  one  side  of  the 
stage,  a  "country"  on  the  other  side.  And  this  seems  to  have  been 
a  very  popular  method  of  presenting  court  plays;  that  is,  on  one 
side  of  the  stage  was  constructed  a  "house"  of  painted  canvas,  a 
castle  or  a  city,  while  on  the  other  side  was  constructed  another 
city  or  castle  or  country  or  anything  else  necessary. 

A  good  example  of  a  play  staged  in  this  manner  is  the  Damon 
and  Pithias,  acted  at  court  on  Christmas  Day,  1564.  "Edwardes 
tragedy"  is  mentioned  in  the  Revels  Accounts  (p.  116)  in  connec- 
tion with  "officers  and  Tayllours  payntars  workinge  divers  Cities 
and  Townes  .  .  .  and  howsses  and  other  devisses. "  *  In  pre- 
senting this  particular  play,  the  castle  of  Dionysius  was  constructed 
on  one  side  of  the  stage,  Syracuse  on  the  other.  It  is  to  these 
properties  that  the  Prologue  presumably  points  ®  when  he  says : 
"Lo,  here  in  Syracuse  th'  ancient  town,  which  once  the 

Romans   won, 
Here    Dionysius    palace,    within    whose    court    this    thing 
most  strange  was  done." 

•For  evidence  that  "Edwardes  tragedy"  and  Damon  and  Pithias  are  the  Bame  play, 
Bee  Durand  in  Mod.  Lang.  Notes,  23,  p.  131;  Journal  of  Germ.  Phil.,  IV,  pp.  348-55. 

"  Cf .  a  similar  device  in  Beza's  Abraharn  Sacrifant,  translated  by  Golding  in  1577 
(ed.  of  Wallace,  p.  95).  This  explanation  of  the  mise  en  scene  was  a  common  function 
of  the  prologue  in  early  French  religious  plays.  Cf.  Stuart,  Stage  Decoration  in  France, 
pp.  118,  166,  172,  179-80;  G.  Cohen,  La  Mise  en  Seine  dans  le  Theatre  Religieux 
Fransais,  pp.  75-77. 


THE  STAGES  AT  COURT  AND  THE  EARLY  THEATRES  53 

And  the  characters  in  Edward's  tragedy  are  often  rather  careful 
to  tell  us  that  they  are  either  going  to  or  have  just  come  from  the 
city  or  the  court.  "When  they  do  not  tell  us  so  much,  it  is  obvious 
that  they  have  either  come  from  or  are  going  to  this  same  city  or 
court.  Cambises  was  no  doubt  staged  in  much  the  same  manner. 
If  the  play  was  acted  at  court,  and  we  can  be  virtually  certain  that 
it  was/''  then  we  can  be  pretty  certain  that  on  one  side  of  the  stage 
was  the  palace  of  Cambises,  on  the  other  side  a  city  or  inn  before 
which  the  comic  scenes  (11.  125-292,  732-824)  are  supposed  to  take 
place.  Between  them  was  the  "pleasant  green"  which,  it  may  be 
noted,  is  not  much  out  of  place  before  the  castle.  There  are  no 
interior  scenes.  A  banquet  is  served,  but  like  many  Elizabethan 
banquets,  it  was  served  out-doors.  In  Ingeland's  Disobedient 
Child,  probably  acted  at  court  ^^  on  March  6,  1560-1,  an  inn  ap- 
parently stands  at  one  side  of  the  stage  and  a  city  (i.  e.,  London, 
about  forty  miles  away),  or  the  father's  house  in  London,  on  the 
other ;  but  as  the  play  presumably  has  a  place  or  property  to  which 
the  unfortunate  husband  can  take  the  clothes  as  if  to  the  river 
and  wash  them  without  leaving  the  stage,  it  should  perhaps  be 
discussed  with  the  plays  mentioned  later. 

If  it  be  objected  that  a  "city"  would  hardly  be  raised  at  the 
side  of  the  stage,  then  let  us  turn  to  the  ten  or  twelve  plays  men- 
tioned in  the  Revels  Accounts  calling  for  a  "battlement"  and  a 
"city."  It  would  be  as  easy  to  build  a  city  at  the  side  as  to  erect 
a  battlement  there ;  and  surely  both  were  not  placed  at  centre  back. 
In  the  Portio  and  Bemorantes,  acted  at  court  in  1578-9,  a  city  and  a 
town  are  called  for  {Doc,  321)  ;  a  play  acted  at  court  by  the  Lord 
Chamberlain's  Servants  in  1579  {ihid.,  320),  and  one  presented 
on  Twelfth  Night,  1580,  both  call  for  a  city  and  a  country  house 
{ibid.,  321).  In  1568  Benger  wrote  of  a  "Scotlande  and  a  gret 
castell  one  thother  side."  Unless  we  assume  a  shifting  of  painted 
scenery — a  device  first  practiced  at  court  by  Inigo  Jones — we  must 
believe  that  the  Elizabethans  were  rather  fond  of  placing  such 
things  as  cities  at  the  side  of  their  stage.^^ 

^"Fleay,  Hist,  of  Stage,  p.  64. 

"Fleay,  Biog.  Chron.,  I,  307. 

^  There  is,  it  seems  to  me,  no  especial  reason  for  supposing  that  the  entries  in  the 
Revels  Accounts  calling  for  the  stage  settings  of  particular  plays  are  radically  incomplete. 
W.  J.  Lawrence  writes  that  "the  entries  in  the  Revels  Accounts  dealing  with  the  pro- 


54   THE   COURT   AND   THEATRES   DURING   THE   REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH 

Alongside  these  plays  with  countries,  houses  or  cities  on  each 
side  of  the  stage,  we  should  expect  dramas  in  which  the  "middle 
space  between",  instead  of  being  merely  covered  with  arras  or 
painted  cloths,  as  it  no  doubt  was  in  many  early  plays,  should  be 
utilized  for  such  places  as  could  not  well  be  located  at  the  side. 
At  centre  back  was  perhaps  located  the  hole  into  which  the  worthy 
doctor  stuck  his  head  in  Gammer  Gurton,  and  the  den  from  which 
Tediousnes  issued  in  The  Marriage  of  Wit  and  Science.    Here,  too, 

vision  of  scenic  appurtenances  for  specific  plays  afford  little  clue  to  the  actual  staging". 
"These  items  merely  represented",  he  continues,  "new  material.  Many  mansions  and 
other  properties  in  stock  were  used  again  and  again"  {Sh.  Jahrbuch,  29,  p.  157).  Says 
Feuillerat:  "Et  si  la  liste  des  decors  que  nous  connaissons  n'est  pas  aussi  longue  que 
celles  des  accessoires,  c'est  tout  simplement  parce  que  les  comptes  ne  mentionnent  que 
le  materiel  construit  dans  I'annee  et  venant  s'ajouter  au  materiel  iijh  en  service"  (Le 
Bureau,  p.  66). 

I  cannot  help  feeling  a  certain  impertinence  in  questioning  the  statements  of  such 
recognized  authorities,  but  I  believe  that  they  are  not  entirely  correct  in  their  assertions. 
To  be  sure  the  accounts  frequently  speak  of  a  battlement  or  city  as  "newe  em- 
ployed", but  this  does  not  necessarily  mean  that  old  scenery  was  regularly  re-used. 
Frames  were  sometimes  re-employed  (Doc,  121),  but  surely  not  the  canvas  stretched 
over  them.  And  we  can  be  pretty  sure  that  when  even  frames  and  smaller  properties 
made  their  reappearance,  they  were  altered  beyond  recognition  {Doc,  pp.  117,  120,  153, 
"Piatt"  facing  page  16).  In  1572  Thos.  Gylles  wrote  that  a  costume  "never  com  before 
her  heyghnes  twysse  In  on  forme"  (Doc.  409).  Surely  this  was  also  true  of  such  cheap 
and  transient  materials  as  frames  and  painted  canvas. 

I  would  not  contend  that  the  store-room  during  the  time  of  Elizabeth  was  as  full  of 
once-used  properties  as  it  perhaps  was  in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII  or  the  period  following 
Elizabeth's  reign,  when,  according  to  Shirley,  "all  the  properties  [of  clouds  in  masques] 
have  been  paid  forty  times  over,  and  are  in  the  court  stock" ;  and  when  Jonson  ex- 
postulated again  Inigo  Jones's  "Thrice  conceived,  thrice  paid  for  imagery".  There  is, 
however,  considerable  reason  for  supposing,  it  seems  to  me,  that  at  least  during  the  first 
twenty-five  or  thirty  years  of  her  reign  a  battlement,  castle,  town  or  city  never  made 
more  than  one  appearance  before  Elizabeth.  In  the  first  place  it  is  important  to  note 
that  none  of  the  plays  which  we  know  were  actually  presented  at  court  during  those 
years  calls  for  a  larger  number  of  cities,  towns,  etc.,  than  are  regularly  mentioned  in 
the  documents  in  connection  with  the  various  plays.  It  is  important  to  note,  too,  that 
plays  presented  within  a  few  days  of  one  another  and  calling  for  identically  the  same 
kind  of  scenery  nevertheless  seem  to  have  had  special  equipments.  Tq  illustrate.  In 
1564  we  have  the  entry,  with  "Edwardes  tragedy"  in  the  margin,  "canvas  to  cover  divers 
townes  and  howsses"  {Doc,  116).  In  the  same  year  under  "Sir  Percyvall  hartes  sonnes" 
play  we  have  "paynttars  workinge  uppon  divers  Cities  and  Townes",  and  for  the  masque 
by  the  Gentlemen  of  Gray's  Inn,  "payntars  workinge  uppon  the  Townes"  (ibid.,  117). 
In  the  accounts  for  1579-1579-80  numerous  cities  are  mentioned  together  with  two  battle- 
ments and  two  country  houses;  and  in  the  list  of  plays  of  1580-81  six  cities  and  four 
battlements  are  called  for.  It  certainly  seems  that  the  very  things  that  we  e.xpect  to  have 
been  re-used — towns,  battlements,  cities — served  only  once,  and  that  a  special  background 
was  "new  made"  for  each  play.  The  pieces  of  scenery  were  no  doubt  rich  and  elaborate 
but  only  a  few  separate  pieces  were  employed.  It  is  difficult  to  say  how  large  the  cities 
and  battlements  really  were. 

And  finally,  it  is  not  at  all  likely  that  Elizabeth,  a  lover  of  variety  and  showy  per- 
formances (Cf.,  e.  g.,  Spanish  State  Papers,  1580-86,  p.  93),  would  have  tolerated  the 
reappearance  of  painted  scenery. 


THE  STAGES  AT  COURT  AND  THE  EARLY  THEATRES  55 

were  placed  the  elaborate  woods  and  gardens  in  various  plays  to  be 
mentioned  later/^  the  prison  in  the  play  performed  at  court  by 
Warwick's  Servants  in  1578-9  {Doc,  p.  327),  and  probably  the 
"mounts"  mentioned  at  various  times  in  the  Revels  Accounts. 
The  extremely  frequent  ''battlements"  referred  to  in  the  same 
documents  seem  usually  to  have  been  made  of  canvas.  When  they 
were  practicable  and  capable  of  being  stormed,  as  was  the  one  in 
Horestes,  or  were  provided  with  ''rayles"  made  of  ''ffurre  poles" 
(Doc,  p.  327),  they  were  in  all  probability  located  at  the  rear  of 
the  stage. 

The  Marriage  of  Wit  and  Science,  probably  the  Witte  and  Will 
mentioned  by  Benger  as  having  been  presented  at  court  between 
July  14,  1567,  and  March  3,  1567-8,  is  a  good  example  of  a  drama 
of  the  group  under  discussion.  On  one  side  of  the  stage  was  located 
the  house  of  Wit,  on  the  other  the  house  of  Reason  in  which 
Science,  his  daughter,  also  dwelt.  Between  them,  "as  you  come 
and  go"  from  house  to  house,  was  the  "deadly  den"  of  Tedious- 
ness.  There  are  no  interior  scenes.  John  Redford's  Play  of  Wyt 
and  Science  and  other  dramas  to  be  discussed  later  were  obviously 


other  things  should  perhaps  be  mentioned  in  this  connection.  Revels  property  does 
not  seem  to  have  received  the  best  of  attention.  It  was  allowed  to  remain  on  the  floor 
and  in  rotten  presses  (Doc,  pp.  186,  411,  455-56,  474);  it  was,  as  Giles  tells  us,  rented 
to  outsiders;  it  was  lent  to  the  universities  {Malone  Soc.  Collections,  I,  2,  p.  213;  iMd., 
I,  3,  p.  248;  Rainolds,  Overthrow  of  Stage  Plaies,  pp.  25,  75;  Mod.  Lang.  Review,  Jan. 
1911,  p.  93)  ;  it  was  given  as  fees  to  actors  and  officers  (Brewer,  II,  p.  1509;  IV,  1553, 
etc.;  Doc.  of  Revels,  pp.  25,  27,  111;  Losely  Manuscripts,  ed.  Kempe,  pp.  62,  83; 
Chambers,  Tudor  Revels,  p.  20;  Pub.  Mod.  Lang.  Ass'n.,  XVII,  189);  the  practice  of 
plundering  seems  to  have  lasted  from  the  time  of  Henry  to  that  of  James  I  (Hall,  Chronicle, 
519;  Brewer,  II,  p.  1495;  Doc.  of  Revels,  23,  24,  202,  338,  435,  162;  Brotanek,  Eng. 
Maskenspiele,  113-114).  The  custom  of  giving  property  to  masquers,  which  was  ex- 
tremely popular  in  Henry  VIII's  time,  perhaps  continued  to  a  considerable  degree  dur- 
ing the  reign  of  his  daughter  (Brewer,  I,  718;  II,  1493,  1498,  1502-4,  1550,  1510; 
Hall,  566,  724;  Doc,  23,  24,  202;  Reyher,  Lea  Masques  Anglais,  45,  421-2).  These 
things  imply  extravagance  and  carelessness.  And  canvas  and  frames,  we  can  be  pretty 
sure,  did  not  meet  with  much  consideration  after  serving  once,  especially  since  they  were 
not  capable  of  being  re-made  or  re-designed  to  the  extent  that  costumes  were. 

^^  It  is  hard  to  say  just  how  much  decoration  was  bestowed  upon  the  woods  and 
gardens  on  the  court  stage.  If  we  can  judge  from  the  elaborate  pageants  representing 
such  places  that  were  drawn  into  the  hall  during  Henry  VIII's  reign,  they  must  have 
been  rather  elaborate  affairs.  Cf.  the  "pageaunt  of  a  great  quantite"  representing  a 
forest  and  castle  in  the  second  year  of  his  reign  (Hall,  Chronicle,  517),  "the  Golldyn 
Arber  in  the  Archeyerd  of  Plesyer"  of  1511  (Brewer,  Letters  and  Papers,  II,  1495-6), 
the  "Gardyn  de  Esperans",  of  1516  (ibid.  p.  109,  Hall,  p.  586),  etc.  When  at  Oxford 
in  1566,  Lady  Amelia  sang  sweetly  while  "gathering  her  flowers  prettily  in  a  garden  then 
represented",  she  probably  performed  before  quite  a  gorgeous  background  (Nichols,  Proff. 
of  Eliz.,  ed.  1805,   III,   112). 


56   THE   COURT    AND   THEATRES   DURING   THE    REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH 

staged  in  much  the  same  manner.  Indeed,  one  is  even  inclined  to 
say  that  in  Redford's  play  the  house  of  Wyt  was  located  on  the 
right  side  (to  the  audience)  of  the  stage,  the  house  of  Reason  on 
the  left.^* 

On  such  a  stage  an  interior  scene  could  only  be  suggested  at 
most.  And  as  a  matter  of  fact,  in  the  plays  of  this  type  there  are 
no  scenes  that  require  an  interior  setting.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  greatest  care  is  taken  to  keep  the  action  outside  the  houses,  as 
in  the  plays  just  mentioned  or  the  serving  of  the  banquet  in  the 
open  air  before  the  King's  palace  in  Camhises.  To  be  sure,  we 
sometimes  have  rather  delicate  scenes  taking  place  in  the  open. 
Courtships,  even  engagements,  occur  in  the  streets.  Kings,  too, 
frequently  discuss  state  matters,  not  in  the  council-chamber,  but 
in  the  court  or  garden  before  the  palace.  Such  scenes  have  some- 
times caused  scholars  trouble.  Creizenach,  for  instance,  says  of 
Gascoigne's  Glass  of  Government:  *'Der  Schauplatz  schwebt  ganz 
in  der  Luft:  bald  haben  wir  uns  ein  Zimmer,  bald  eine  Strasse  als 
Ort  der  Handlung  zu  denken.  .  .  .  Nach  einer  Schulscene  Akt 
1.  Sc.  5  tritt  Lamia  mit  ihrer  Sippschaft  auf  und  Eccho  sagt  (S. 
23)  :  'I  saw  a  frosty  bearded  Schoolmaster  instructing  of  foure 
young  men  erewhyle  as  we  came  in.'  Vielleicht  hatte  die  Biihne 
einen  Hintergrund,  der  durch  einen  Vorhang  abgeschossen  werden 
konnte."^^ 

It  is  somewhat  surprising  to  hear  a  teacher  lecturing  in  the 
street,  but  in  all  probability  that  is  just  what  happens  here.    There 

"  Certain  entries  in  the  Revels  Accounts,  though  necessarily  very  uncertain,  should 
perhaps  be  mentioned  here  as  showing  how  the  central  back  portion  of  the  court  stage 
was  possibly  sometimes  utilized.  The  plays  of  1571-1571-2  had  in  addition  to  "apt 
howses"  made  of  painted  canvas,  "sundry  properties  incident,  ffashioned,  paynted,  garn- 
ished and  bestowed  as  the  partyes  them  selves  required  &  needed"  (Doc,  p.  145);  while 
the  accounts  for  1572-1572-3,  after  speaking  of  "sparres  to  make  frames  for  the  players 
howses",  refer  to  "A  tree  of  Holly  for  the  Duttons  playe",  "other  holly  for  the  forest", 
"trees  &  other  things  ....  for  A  wildernesse",  "Tymber  for  the  forest"  {ihid., 
pp.  175,  180).  The  accounts  of  1573-1573-4  call  for  canvas  painted  for  players'  houses 
and  also  for  "great  hollow  trees",  "leaves  of  trees",  "Ivy  for  the  Wylde  menne  &  thar- 
bour"  (ibid.,  pp.  197,  200).  On  Nov.  25,  1574,  a  payment  was  made  for  "Oariage  of 
iiii  Lodes  of  Tymber  for  the  Rock  (which  Mr.  Rosse  made  for  my  Lord  of  Leicesters 
menns  playe)  &  for  other  frames  for  players  howses"  (p.  244);  and  on  Dec.  28,  a 
similar  payment  is  made  for  the  carriage  by  water  to  court  of  "a  paynted  cloth  and  two 
frames  for  the  Earle  of  Leicesters"  (p.  266).  The  History  of  the  Knight  in  the  Burning 
Rock,  1578-9,  possibly  used  two  frames  besides  an  elaborate  rock   (p.  310)  ;   the  History 

of  Love  and  ffortune,  1583,  required  a  city  and  battlement  of  canvas,  "a  of 

canvas"   (p.  349),  etc. 

^Geachichte,   III,   554. 


THE  STAGES  AT  COURT  AND  THE  EARLY  THEATRES  57 

is  some  doubt  as  to  whether  two  houses  or  four  were  employed  in 
presenting  this  particular  play,  but  there  is  not  doubt  that  the 
author  took  considerable  pains  to  observe  the  unity  of  place  and  to 
keep  the  action  outdoors.  Professor  Cunliffe  ^®  wrote  a  short  time 
ago  regarding  Gorbodiic,  that  nearly  all  the  dialogue  is  delivered 
in  the  council  chamber  of  the  King.  There  seems  to  be  nothing  in 
the  text,  however,  to  locate  the  dialogue  definitely  in  the  council 
chamber.  Very  similar  dialogue  occurs  in  The  Misfortunes  of 
Arthur,  a  play  that  in  more  than  one  way  seems  to  have  been 
influenced  in  its  method  of  presentation  by  Gorhoduc.  In  Hughes's 
drama  we  are  told  definitely  in  stage  directions  that  a  cloister  was 
prepared  for  the  queen  to  enter,  a  house  for  Modred,  and  another 
for  Arthur.  Characters  come  out  of  and  enter  these  houses,  but 
they  do  not  carry  on  conversations  inside  them.  In  Gorhoduc,  I 
venture  to  say,  the  dialogue  was  carried  on  before  the  palaces  of 
the  King,  Ferrex,  and  Porrex.  Both  plays  kept  the  plan  of  the 
classic  stage  but  increased,  as  it  were,  the  distance  between  the 
houses;  many  places  were  "inartistically"  suggested. 

But  whenever  the  need  for  actually  presenting  interior  scenes 
instead  of  suggesting  them  was  felt,  the  Elizabethans  did  not  mere- 
ly feel  the  need  in  silence.  Nor  did  they  invent  an  ekkyklema 
as  Wegener  seems  to  tliink.^^  They  erected,  probably  at  centre 
back,  a  frame  or  structure  more  closely  resembling  the  houses  of 
mystery  plays  and  longer  moralities,  such  frames  as  had  perhaps 
been  also  used  in  such  early  indoor  plays  as  Queen  Hester  and 
Johan  Johan}^    Before  this  structure  a  curtain  was  no  doubt  often 

"  Camh.  Hist.  Eng.  Lit.,  V,  74. 

"  Buhneneinrichtung   des  Shalcespeareschen   Theaters,   p.   58. 

"  other  early  plays  that  seem  to  call  for  such  a  structure  are  Nice  Wanton,  Wager's 
Mary  Magdalene,  Mankind,  Conflict  of  Conscience,  though  they  are  all  doubtful.  Johan 
Johan  does  not  fit  in  with  Albright's  theory  of  staging ;  hence  when  Johan  is  sent  for 
the  priest  he  is  made  to  leave  the  stage  and  seek  the  worthy  at  "a  door  at  some  other 
part  of  the  room"  (Shakesperian  Stage,  p.  33).  This  is  unnecessary.  The  play  was 
acted  at  court ;  and  it  was  based  on  French  farce  in  which  exteriors  and  interiors  were 
regularly  presented  simultaneously  (Stuart,  Stage  Decoration  in  France,  pp.  214  flf. ;  Auber- 
tin,  Hist,  de  la  langiie  et  de  la  litt.  fr.,  I,  648,  note,  etc.)  Regarding  the  staging  of 
Mankind  I  am  unwilling  to  commit  myself.  I  will  say,  however,  that  Albright's  diagnosis 
of  it  as  "an  open-air  play  beside  a  tree"  (p.  33)  is  as  erroneous  as  Brandl's  "cryke"  and 
"deambulatory".  He  forgets  that  at  certain  points  (cf.  11.  143,  153-4,  202)  the  action 
is  presumably  in  a  house,  and  that  the  "tree"  beside  which  the  play  takes  place  is  a 
gallows-tree  which  is  brought  on  the  stage  by  Mischief  at  1.  792  and  held  by  Now-a-days 
while  they  prepare  to  hang  Mankind.  "Tree"  in  the  sense  of  gallows  or  gibbett  is  good 
Elizabethan  English.  Cf.  e.  g.,  Sir  Thomas  More,  Sh.  Soc.  Pub.,  Ill,  35,  Two  Tragedies 
in   One,  ed.   Bullen,   IV,   ix. 


58   THE   COURT    AND   THEATRES   DURING    THE   REIGN   OF    ELIZABETH 

suspended,  as  had  been  done  in  mystery  plays,  and  as  was  the  case 
with  respect  to  the  senate  house  used  in  A  Story  of  Pompey  acted 
in  1580-1  (Doc,  p.  336),  the  cell  in  the  Old  Wives  Tale,  and 
Sapho's  bed  chamber  in  Lyly's  Sapho  and  Phao.  And  in  order  to 
make  these  interior  scenes  convincing  on  this  stage  of  simultane- 
ous setting,  the  action  that  was  supposed  to  take  place  inside  a 
house  did  not  sweep  along  before  a  city  or  the  exterior  of  another 
house,  but  was  actually  confined  to  the  structure  representing  the 
interior.^^  The  "bower"  of  Melissa  in  Misogonus  is  a  case  in  point. 
Gismond  of  Salerne,  presented  before  the  Queen  in  1576,  seems 
conclusive.  Tancred's  palace  occupies  one  side  of  the  stage,  Gis- 
mond's  chamber  the  rear.  The  action  of  V,  2  and  3  takes  place 
in  Gismond 's  chamber.  Note  in  this  connection  the  stage  direc- 
tions: "Kenuchio  delivereth  the  cup  to  Gismond  in  her  chamber" 
(V,  2,  1),  "Tancred  cometh  out  of  the  palace"  (V,  3,  1),  "Tan- 
cred  enter eth  into  Gismond 's  Chamber"  (V,  3,  4),  "Tancred 
cometh  out  of  Gismond 's  chamber"  (V,  4,  1).  The  dialogue  be- 
tween the  last  two  directions  takes  place  inside  the  chamber  where 
Gismond  dies.     No  scenes  are  presented  inside  Tancred's  palace. 

In  a  word,  there  is  not  a  symptom  of  alternation  in  any  extant 
play  written  before  1576.  All  were  written  for  the  strictly  classic 
stage,  for  a  simple  platform,  or  for  what  may  be  called,  perhaps 
not  inappropriately,  the  modified  and  expanded  classic  stage  dis- 
cussed above.  And,  as  we  shall  see  later,  the  same  seems  to  be  true 
of  most  of  the  plays  acted  at  court  before  1603. 

While  such  dramas  were  being  acted  on  the  stage  or  stages 
which  I  have  tried  to  describe,  there  lived  in  England  a  person, 
who,  judging  from  his  subsequent  career,  did  not  wait  to  receive 
ideas  and  inspiration  from  Italy  or  Holland  before  he  accomplished 
things.  When  the  company  containing  this  practical  Burbage  (the 
same  Burbage  who  later  on  presumably  fitted  up  the  Blackfriars 
after  court  fashions)  decided  to  build  a  permanent  stage  on  which 
he  and  his  companions  could  train  for  court  performances — and 
of  course  make  money — a  stage  on  which  they  could  act  plays  that 

"  On  the  more  crowded  French  stage  this  was  probably  not  always  the  case.  Cf. 
the  theory  of  Rigal,  Thiatre  francais  avant  la  piriode  classique,  p.  264.  I  do  not  mean, 
of  course,  to  imply  here  that  all  interior  scenes  presented  later  in  the  public  theatres 
were  confined  to  the  rear  stage.  In  scenes,  however,  where  the  inner  stage  represented 
an  interior  and  a  door  an  exterior  (see  below)  the  indoor  action  was  probably  confined 
to  the  rear  stage. 


THE  STAGES  AT  COURT  AND  THE  EARLY  THEATRES  59 

had  been  acted  at  court  and  such  plays  as  would  be  acted  at  court ; 
in  fact,  a  stage  on  which  any  sort  of  play  with  which  they  v/ere 
acquainted  could  be  presented  with  equal  ease  and  adequacy,  sure- 
ly it  is  not  attributing  too  much  ingenuity  to  this  Elizabethan  to 
suppose  that  he  should  take  as  his  model,  not  the  old  improvised 
stage  alone,  but  the  regular  arrangements  of  the  stage  at  court,  a 
stage  on  which  he  and  his  fellows  had  frequently  acted,^"  and 
with  the  working  of  which  they  had  been  further  familiarized 
through  rehearsals  before  the  Master  of  the  Revels.^^  And  should 
it  be  surprising  that  he  remedied  the  limitations  of  a  less  adequate 
system?  Many  of  the  plays  cited  above  could,  of  course,  be  acted 
on  a  stage  erected  in  inn-yard,  or  guild-hall,  but  far  more  satis- 
factorily and  convincingly  on  the  court  stage  with  its  various  possi- 
bilities. 

When  Burbage  observed  how  all  difficulties  in  stage  presentation 
had  been  overcome  at  court,  let  us  suppose  that  the  observation  put 
him  to  thinking.  In  his  public  theatre  he  could  not  well  construct 
"howses"  of  painted  canvas  at  the  sides  of  his  stage,  a  city  or  a 
"Scotlande,"  but  he  could  do  the  next  best  thing — he  could  set 
in  painted  wooden  walls  two  doors  with  windows  above  them,  which 
could,  and  did,  take  the  place  of  canvas  houses;  and  by  the  use 
of  sign-boards  ^-  he  could  transform  these  sides  of  his  stage  into  a 
"Thebes,"  or  "Asia"  or  "Phrygia,"  while  behind  these  same 
doors  actors  could  dress  as  they  had  probably  done  within  the 
"bowses"  at  court.  He  could  not  conveniently  build  a  "mount" 
or  a  battlement  of  canvas  at  the  rear  of  his  stage,  but  he  could  take 
the  balcony  of  the  court  stage,  so  to  speak, — or  the  gallery  of  the 
inn-yard,  if  one  prefers — place  it  between  his  two  doors  and  make 
it  serve  for  a  ' '  mount, ' '  a  rock  or  a  battlement.    He  could  not  eco- 

^°Doc.  of  Bevels,  passim;  Fleay,  Biog.  Ohron.,  II,  289;  E.  K.  Chambers,  Mod,  Lang. 
Review,  II,  5. 

^^  Heywood,  Apology  for  Actors,  p.  40,  Feuillerat,  Le  Bureau  des  Menus  Plaiaurs, 
pp.   55-56,  Doc.   of  Revels,  pp.   176,    179,    238,   277,   297,   301,    325,   etc. 

^  For  the  common  practice  of  writing  the  names  of  cities  over  gateways,  see  Jus- 
serand,  Lit.  Hist.  Eng.  People,  III,  65.  A  play  which  employed  a  door  to  represent  a 
city  and  which  was  probably  staged  very  similarly  to  certain  plays  at  the  English  court 
is  the  San  Hermenegildo,  acted  in  1570  by  the  students  of  the  College  of  San  Hermen- 
gildo.  In  the  presentation  of  this  tragedy  there  was  at  the  front  of  the  stage  "a  large 
door  of  fine  architecture,  representing  the  city  of  Seville,  on  the  frieze  of  which  was  a 
shield  with  the  letters  S.  P.  Q.  H."  Through  this  middle  door  entered  only  those  who 
came  from  Seville,  those  coming  from  elsewhere  entering  at  side  doors  (Rennert,  Span- 
ish Stage,  24). 


60   THE    COURT    AND   THEATRES    DURING    THE    REIGN   OF    ELIZABETH 

nomically  construct  prisons  of  canvas  at  centre  back  or  curtained 
senate  houses,  but  he  could  suspend  before  the  recess  beneath  his 
upper  stage  a  curtain  such  as  he  had  seen  used  at  court,  or  such  as 
had  hung  before  the  "scene"  of  improvised  stages  prior  to  1576; 
and  this  recess  could  be  made  to  serve  for  a  prison  or  senate  house, 
a  bower,  an  arbor  or  a  den.  He  was  not  concerned  with  having 
maskers  move  from  the  "howses"  prepared  for  them  at  the  sides 
of  a  stage  into  the  centre  of  a  large  hall,  but  he  was  concerned 
with  affording  acrobats  sufficient  room  for  their  tumbling  and 
fencers  adequate  space  for  their  bouts.  He  erected  a  platform  large 
enough  for  the  purpose. 

This  stage  so  constructed  was  extremely  flexible  and  elastic.  It 
was  really  a  multiple  court  stage,  as  it  were,  which  in  an  instant 
could  be  fitted  to  all  the  possibilities  of  the  court  stage  before  1576. 
On  it  could  be  presented  with  equal  ease  and  rapidity  a  simple 
performance  with  unpropertied  and  unlocated  action  as  The 
Pedler's  Prophecy  and  various  earlier  productions,^^  a  play  like 
Tom  Tyler  or  Kirig  Darius  requiring  a  single  interior  setting,^* 
a  classic  play  with  one  house  as  Ralph  Roister,  or  with  two  as 
Gammer  Ourton,  a  drama  like  Damon  and  Pithias  demanding  a 
city  and  a  castle,  a  play  like  Gismond  of  Salerne  or  Misogonus 

^  Albright  in  his  brief  and  somewhat  careless  discussion  of  "The  Interludes  and 
Shorter  Moralities"  classes  as  this  type  of  play  Bespublica,  Lusty  Juventus,  Impatient 
Poverty,  Love,  Mind,  Will  and  Understanding,  Magnificence,  Four  P's,  Wealth  and  Health, 
Trial  of  Treasure,  God's  Promises,  New  Custom,  Albion  Knight,  Wit  and  Science,  Dis- 
obedient Child.  He  might  have  added  Bale's  Johan  the  Baptist,  and  Three  Laws,  perhaps, 
and  Hej'wood's  Wit  and  Witless.  EycJcescorner  also  really  belongs  here.  The  first  five 
plays  of  Albright's  list  above  contain  nothing  in  the  text,  to  be  sure,  that  implies  located 
or  propertied  action.  The  same  is  probably  true  of  Four  P's,  Wealth  and  Health,  and 
Wapul's  Tide  Tarrieth  No  Man.  Trial  of  Treasure  and  New  Custom  are  doubtful  (See 
above).  God's  Promises  probably  represents  heaven  and  earth  simultaneously.  Albion 
Knight  is  a  mere  fragment.  Surely  we  are  not  justified  in  saying  how  it  was  staged 
any  more  than  we  are  with  respect  to  other  fragments  as  Dux  Moraud,  Love  Feigned 
and  Unfeigned,  Temperance  and  Humility.  Magnificence  is  a  case  of  "idealized  location" 
(cf.  11.  957,  1966,  2263,  and  Ramsay's  Introd.,  pp.  xliv-vii).  Wit  and  Science  and 
Disobedient   Child   are   almost   certainly  cases  of  simultaneous  setting. 

These  plays  of  "unlocated  and  unpropertied  action"  are  extremely  uncertain;  and 
Albright  in  his  discussion  of  them  leaves  out  of  consideration  tke  fact  that  many  of  them 
were  written  for  court  performance  where  from  a  very  early  date  such  things  as  painted 
houses  were  employed,  and  the  fact  that  plays  regularly  followed  a  masque  where  the 
"scenery"  of  the  masque  may  have  been  used  as  a  background  for  the  action  of  the  play. 
Albright  has  also  neglected,  I  may  add,  to  consult  Brandl's  discussion  of  the  staging 
of  these  early  plays. 

^  other  early  plays,  in  which  the  action  seems  to  be  confined  to  a  single  interior 
are  King  Johan  (?),  Wether,  All  for  Money,  Four  Elements  (?),  Pardoner  and  Friar, 
Like  Will  to  Like   (J). 


THE  STAGES  AT  COURT  AND  THE  EARLY  THEATRES  61 

calling  for  the  exterior  of  one  house  and  the  interior  of  another,  a 
production  like  Horestes  requiring  a  castle  and  a  practicable  battle- 
ment, plays  calling  for  "two  Frames"  (cities  or  houses)  and  a 
battlement,  or  a  play  like  John  Bedford's  Wyt  and  Science  em- 
ploying two  houses,  a  den  and  perhaps  a  mount.  And  every 
feature  of  this  very  elastic  stage,  it  should  be  noted  again,  had 
appeared  with  more  or  less  frequency  on  the  court  stage  before 
1576. 

Now  after  having  constructed  a  stage  with  the  possibilities  of 
this  one  on  which  plays  acted  at  court  could  be  presented  easily 
and  adequately,  and  without  a  single  change  of  setting,  surely 
Burbage  and  his  fellows  did  not  take  the  trouble  to  get  up  special 
versions  of  court  plays  adapted  to  the  public  stage.  Why  assume 
that  the  same  play  was  staged  in  one  way  at  court  and  in  an 
entirely  different  manner  on  the  public  stage,  when  the  same  pro- 
duction could  have  been  staged  in  the  same  manner  at  court  and 
in  Burbage 's  theatre  ? 

Let  us  cite  specific  examples  to  make  this  clear.  Rare  Triumphs 
of  Love  and  Fortune  (pub.  1589,  as  having  been  presented  before 
Her  Majesty)  requires  only  Bomelio's  cave,  a  practicable  tree  and 
the  exterior  of  the  palace  of  Phizanties.  All  the  action  takes  place 
in  a  wood,  before  a  cave,  and  before  the  palace.  As  presented  at 
court,  the  palace  was  perhaps  located  at  one  side  of  the  stage,  the 
cave  on  the  other,  and  the  wood  of  painted  canvas  with  a  practicable 
tree  or  trees  at  the  rear.  When  such  a  play  was  to  be  acted  on  the 
public  stage  where  the  cave  could  be  represented  by  the  inner 
stage — or  a  door — the  tree  located  at  one  side  of  the  stage — or 
before  the  rear  stage  ^^ — and  the  castle  be  represented  by  a  stage 
door,  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  a  special  method  of 
staging  was  got  up  for  the  regular  theatre.  Mucedorus,  printed  in 
1610  as  it  was  acted  before  the  King  at  Whitehall  by  his  Highness 's 
Servants  usually  acting  at  the  Globe,  calls  for  the  castle  of  the 
King  of  Arragon,  the  palace  of  Valentia  and  a  wood.  There  are 
no  interior  scenes.  Orlando  Furioso,  published  1599  as  it  was 
"played  before  the  Queenes  Maiestie,"  calls  for  the  exterior  of  the 
palace  of  Marcillus,  the  walls  of  Rodamont  and  a  grove.     Such 

^  I  do  not  say  that  trees  were  never  placed  on  the  rear  stage.  There  is  no  reason, 
however,  for  supposing  that  such  was  ever  done  before  1603. 


62    THE    COURT   AND   THEATRES   DURING   THE   REIGN   OP    ELLZABETH 

plays  as  Peele's  Arraignment  of  Paris  with  its  forest  setting  and 
bower  of  Diana,  Lyly's  Loves  Metamorphosis  with  its  temple  of 
Cupid  and  the  rock  and  tree  of  Ceres  near  a  seashore,  Midas  with  its 
temple  of  Apollo,  palace  of  Midas  and  "reedy  place,"  Campashe 
with  its  palace  of  Alexander  on  one  side  of  the  stage,  a  city  (?)  on 
the  other,  and  the  shop  of  Appeles  at  the  rear.  Queen  Dido  with  its 
walls  of  Troy,  palace  of  Dido  and  wood  on  the  Phrygian  shore — all 
these  could  have  been  presented  on  the  regular  stage  adequately 
and  in  the  same  manner  as  they  were  presented  at  court — with 
simultaneous  setting.  And  the  same  is  true  of  such  court  plays  as 
Woman  in  the  Moon,  Endymion,  Gallathea,  Liberality  and  Prodi- 
gality, Maydes  Metamorphosis,  Phillips's  Patient  Grissell,  Wars  of 
Cyrus. 

The  stage  devised  by  Burbage,  then,  and  followed  by  later 
builders  in  general  plan  at  least,  was  extremely  elastic.  But  it 
had  limitations.  Two  interior  scenes,  for  example,  or  two  forests 
and  two  castles,  a  prison  (interior)  and  a  den,  or  the  exterior  of 
four  houses,  or  the  exterior  of  three  houses  and  the  interior  of 
another  one  could  hardly  be  represented  simultaneously.  When 
therefore  under  the  influence  of  sources  or  romanticism  it  was 
desirable  to  present  more  than  three  distinct  localities  which  could 
not  be  represented  simultaneously,  it  is  not  strange  that  playwrights 
and  stage  managers  should  use  the  two  stage  doors  to  represent 
the  exteriors  of  two  houses  in  one  scene  and  two  entirely  different 
ones  in  another  scene,  or  that  they  should  employ  two  permanent 
houses  (stage  doors)  and  place  between  them  a  forest  that  could 
change  its  locality;  that  is,  a  setting  which  at  one  time,  when 
located  by  the  actor's  lines,  could  represent  a  grove  in  Arabia,  at 
another  time  could  represent  a  wood  or  seashore  in  Phrygia.  And 
this  is  just  what  we  find  in  Common  Conditions.  In  this  particular 
play,  "Phrygia"  was  written  over  one  door  while  the  other  door 
probably  represented  the  castle  of  Cardolus.  Between  them  was 
the  changing  forest.  And  it  should  be  noted  that  considerable  care 
is  taken  here,  as  was  no  doubt  the  case  in  other  plays  of  this  type, 
to  avoid  confusion  or  absurdity  of  entrance  and  exit.^^     To  illus- 

2' Note  the  Percy  directions,  and  the  advice  of  Dekker  to  the  gull:  "And  first  ob- 
serve your  doores  of  entrance,  and  your  exit,  not  much  unlike  the  plaiers  at  the  The- 
atres", etc.  (Cited  by  Lawrence  in  this  connection,  Shakespeare  Jahrbuch,  (1909)  p. 
165).     Of.  also  the  coaching  of  actors  in  the  Commedia  dell'  Arte  to  avoid  absurd  exits 


THE  STAGES  AT  COURT  AND  THE  EARLY  THEATRES  63 

trate :  Clarissa  and  her  brother  appear  in  an  Arabian  wood.  We 
are  told  in  a  stage-direction  that  they  are  to  enter,  not  out  of 
Phrygia  or  out  of  Cardolus's  castle,  but  ''out  of  the  wood."  Other 
characters  are  told  to  enter  further  on  "out  of  Phrygia."  A 
somewhat  similar  forest  is  seen  in  Sir  Clyomon  and  Sir  Clamydes. 
In  Mucedorus  and  such  plays  as  The  Maydes  MetamorpJiosis  the 
wood  setting  represents  now  one  part  of  the  forest,  now  another 
part  of  the  same  forest.  As  You  Like  It  has  one  scene  apparently 
before  Oliver's  house  and  two  scenes  before  the  palace  of  Duke 
Frederick.  There  are  no  interior  scenes.  Between  the  two  stage 
doors,  that  could  represent  the  exteriors  previously  mentioned,  was 
placed  the  Forest  of  Arden,  which  is  much  like  the  wood  scenes 
above.  The  wood  setting  located  at  the  side,  or  sides,  of  the  stage 
in  Greene's  Alphonsus  does  not  at  all  interfere  with  the  few  scenes 
in  the  "place  behind  the  stage,"  is  entirely  appropriate  as  a  back- 
ground to  the  various  battle  scenes,  and  it  serves  equally  well  to 
represent  the  grove  in  which  the  exiled  Fausta  (III,  3)  laments 
her  fate  and  the  "Thickest  Shrubs"  where  Venus  and  the  Muses 
meet  in  the  prologue  and  where  they  no  doubt  re-assemble  in  the 
Epilogue.  In  Orlando  Furioso  the  grove  is  presumably  near  the 
palace  of  Marcillus  in  certain  scenes ;  in  others,  III,  2,  for  example, 
rather  removed  from  it. 

Similarly,  when  the  "den"  of  Irksomeness  and  the  "prison" 
into  which  Wit  is  dragged  are  called  for  in  the  same  play,  it  would 
be  an  easy  matter  for  the  curtained  space  at  the  rear  to  represent 
the  den  in  one  act,  the  prison  in  another  (Marriage  of  Wit  and 
Wisdom,  MS.  dated  1579).  Again,  when  two  entirely  distinct  and 
differently  propertied  interiors  were  to  be  presented  in  the  same 
drama,  we  can  rest  assured  that  these  Elizabethans  did  not  over- 
look the  possibilities  of  the  curtain  at  the  changeable  "midst"  be- 
tween the  doors.  Is  it  against  this  floating  middle  region  that  Sir 
Philip  is  complaining  when  he  says  that  we  have  Asia  on  one  side 
of  the  stage,  Africa  on  the  other  side,  and  "so  many  other  under- 
kingdoms  that  the  player  when  he  commeth  in,  must  ever  begin 
with  telling  where  he  is?"    It  would  be  an  easy  step  to  locate  the 

(Mantzius,  Hist,  of  Theatrical  Art,  II,  215),  and  the  reservation  of  particular  entrances 
for  particular  characters  on  the  Spanish  court  stage  (Rennert,  p.  24).  There  is  no 
reason  to  believe  that  absurd  entrances  were  more  frequent  on  the  Elizabethan  stage  than 
they  were  on  the  stages  of  Greece,  Rome,  or  sixteenth  century  Italy. 


64   THE    COURT    AND   THEATRES    DURING   THE   REIGN    OF    ELIZABETH 

interior  permanently,-^  as  for  example  the  study  in  Friar  Bacon, 
or  the  forest,  and  have  the  stage  doors  represent  now  a  house  in 
Asia,  now  a  castle  in  Spain;  or  to  let  both  forest  and  doors  travel 
in  Europe,  provided  each  move  was  located  by  the  lines  of  the 
actors,  chorus,  signboards,  or  general  situation.  Nor  is  this  re- 
using of  "scenery,"  so  to  speak,  unknown  elsewhere.  A  similar 
thing  had  probably  been  done  in  Attic  Comedy ;  ^®  it  was  resorted 
to  as  a  means  of  keeping  down  the  number  of  maisons  on  the  early 
French  stage ;  -^  it  was  perhaps  practiced  occasionally  at  court  at 
no  very  late  period.^" 

"When  necessary,  ' '  alternation ' '  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  but  it 
is  not  so  often  necessary — not  even  in  chronicle  plays  and  violently 
romantic  dramas — as  is  sometimes  supposed.  Nor  should  it  be  sur- 
prising that  such  a  practice  developing  under  the  necessity  of  pre- 
senting more  naturally  a  large  number  of  differently  propertied 
scenes  should  continue  to  develop  as  a  practice  or  principle  as  the 
playwrights,  realizing  the  possibilities  of  the  stage  for  which  they 
wrote,  became  more  and  more  extravagant  in  their  demands  for 
dissimilar  locations  and  properties.  Beds,  thrones,  chairs,  trees, 
wells  were  never  piled  confusedly  on  the  Elizabethan  stage,  as 
Albright  apparently  thinks  that  Reynolds  believes.  In  sixteenth, 
century  England  where  the  performance  of  indoor  mystery  plays 
was  only  sporadic  and  where  the  regular  actors  had  received  their 
early  training  in  the  methods  of  the  "scaffold  hye"  and  the  half- 
Roman,  half -medieval  methods  practiced  at  court,  of  course  nothing 
like  such  an  elaborate  setting  as  is  seen  in  the  Valenciennes  picture 
was  ever  seen  on  the  London  stages.  No  one  would  contend  that 
the  setting  of  the  Castle  of  Perseverance  was  straightened  out, 
as  it  were,  and  placed  in  the  theatres  of  Henslowe  and  Burbage. 
The  Elizabethan  playhouse,  arising  under  circumstances  vastly 
different  from  those  which  shaped  the  first  theatre  in  France,  never 

"  It  seems  to  have  been  a  rather  common  practice  to  arrange  the  rear  stage  at  the 
beginning  of  the  play  and  allow  it  to  remain  undisturbed  throughout  the  performance. 
Cf.,    for   example,   Lord   Cromwell,   Nobody   and   Somebody. 

2«  Haigh,  Attic  Theatre,  3rd  ed.,  p.   198. 

»  Stuart,  Stage  Decoration  in  France,  pp.  21,  26,  27,   113,   184. 

»"  Mother  Bombie  is  a  possible  case.  In  The  Old  Wives  Tale  it  is  pretty  certain 
that  the  curtained  structure  which  served  for  Sacrapant's  cell  also  represented  the  inn, 
and  that  the  table  and  chairs  which  were  placed  in  the  former  also  served  as  properties 
in  the  latter.     In  late  court  plays  a  sort  of  alternation  was  apparently  rather  common. 


THE  STAGES  AT  COURT  AND  THE  EARLY  THEATRES  65 

as  a  rule  revealed  even  such  complicated  stage-settings  as  were 
common  in  the  Hotel  de  Bourgogne  with  its  unbroken  tradition  in 
the  methods  of  stationary  mysteries  and  its  rich  inheritance  from 
medievalism  through  the  medium  of  the  Confreres  de  la  Passion. 
The  peculiar  nature  of  the  Elizabethan  stage  made  congestion  un- 
necessary. The  need  for  a  large  number  of  differently  propertied 
locations  led,  as  we  have  said,  to  alternation  more  or  less  regular; 
and  a  similar  demand  in  elaborate  private  entertainments  led 
Inigo  Jones  at  a  somewhat  later  time  to  employ  a  sort  of  periaktoi 
and  still  later  to  shift  his  scenes  much  in  the  modern  manner. 

When,  however,  alternation  is  not  necessary,  we  have  no  right 
to  assume  it.  When  a  sixteenth  century  stage  could  be  set  before 
the  beginning  of  a  play,  as  in  the  dramas  referred  to  above,  and 
the  play  in  accordance  with  a  well-established  principle  of  staging 
be  presented  adequately  and  without  disturbing  the  setting  as 
originally  arranged,  we  are  certainly  not  justified  in  demanding  a 
"shifting  of  the  scenes."  And  even  in  plays  where  five,  six  or 
ten  different  and  definitely  propertied  locations  are  presented, 
dramas  in  which  the  properties  on  the  rear  stage  must  have  been 
changed  more  than  once  in  the  course  of  the  performance,  we 
should  not  be  surprised  to  find  here  and  there  in  such  plays  the 
stage  representing  at  the  same  time  two  entirely  different  places, 
as,  for  example,  the  exterior  of  one  house  and  the  interior  of  an- 
other, the  exteriors  of  a  house  and  a  castle,  or  a  forest  and  an 
interior ;  or  in  other  words,  cases  of  simultaneous  setting  within  an 
act  or  scene.  Such  cases  are,  I  believe,  easy  to  find.  Most  of  the 
so-called  crudities,  as  Reynolds  pointed  out  long  ago,  are  probably 
examples  of  this  very  thing. 

No  one,  I  suppose,  would  deny  that  the  two  stage  doors  could 
be,  and  were,  used  in  the  same  scene  to  represent  the  exteriors  of 
two  entirely  different  houses.  It  is  not  necessary  to  multiply  ex- 
amples of  this.  Arden  of  Feversham,  III,  2,  4,  and  Knack  To 
Knotv  An  Honest  Man,  scenes  8,  9,  10,  11,  12,  15,  show  it.  Surely 
then  it  is  not  a  radical  step  to  find  in  other  plays  of  the  period  the 
rear  stage  representing  the  interior  of  one  house,  and  a  stage  door 
representing  at  the  same  time  the  exterior  of  another,  especially 
when  we  find  in  court  plays  of  the  time  unquestionable  examples 
of  the  same  thing,  as,  for  example,  in  act  V  of  Sapho  and  Phao, 


66   THE   COURT   AND   THEATRES   DURING   THE   REIGN   OP   ELIZABETH 

where  Venus  standing  before  Vulcan's  forge  actually  sees  Cupid 
sitting  on  Sapho's  lap  inside  a  chamber,  or  in  The  Three  Lords  of 
London,  where  all  the  action  takes  place  before  a  prison  and  before 
and  in  the  stall  of  the  ballad-seller  Simplicity.  Gismond  of  Salerne, 
Misogonus,  and  Johan  Johan  have  already  been  cited  as  examples 
of  the  same  thing. 

Keeping  these  plays  in  mind,  let  us  turn  to  specific  scenes  of 
plays  acted  on  the  public  stage.  In  Lord  Cromwell,  I,  i,  ii,  the 
study  of  young  Cromwell  and  the  exterior  of  his  father's  shop  are 
represented  simultaneously.  In  Sir  John  Oldcastle,  II,  i,  the  first 
part  of  the  scene  takes  place  before  the  castle  of  Oldcastle.  At 
line  632  (Malone  Soc.  Reprint)  the  characters  are  before  an 
alehouse;  at  line  710  they  are  sitting  in  the  ale  house.  In  Arden 
of  Feversham,  I,  i,  the  first  part  of  the  scene  takes  place  before 
Arden 's  house.  A  painter,  we  are  told,  lives  "hard  by";  and  at 
line  245  Mosbie  says,  "This  is  the  painter's  house;  He  call  him 
foorth."  He  calls,  and  Clarke  enters.  At  line  361  the  characters 
are  inside  Arden 's  home,  while  at  line  448  they  are  presumably 
again  before  the  house.  Why  assume  that  a  curtain  "playing 
back  and  forth  at  the  rear"  carefully  informed  the  audience  when 
it  was  to  imagine  an  interior  and  when  an  exterior  scene?  In 
The  Two  Italian  Gentlemen,  line  432,  occurs  this  direction :  ' '  Hear 
let  him  either  take  a  Flute  or  whistle,  at  the  sound  whereof 
Victoria  comes  to  the  windowe,  and  throwes  out  a  letter,  which 
Fedele  taketh  up,  and  reades  it  at  the  lamp  which  bumeth  in  the 
Temple."  Surely  a  curtain  did  not  open  at  this  point.  When 
Fraunce  wrote  a  Latin  play  using  the  same  source  as  the  author  of 
the  English  play  used,  he  thus  directed  the  stage  manager  who 
was  to  stage  his  play  at  the  university :  ' '  Quatuor  extruendae  sunt 
domus,  nimirum:  Fidelis,  Fortunii,  Cornelii,  Octaviani.  Quin  et 
sacellum  quoddam  erigendum  est,  in  quo  constituendum  est  Cardi- 
nalis  cuiusdam  Sepulchrum,  ita  effonnatum,  ut  claudi  aperirique 
possit.  In  Sacello  autem  Lampas  ardens  ponenda  est. ' '  ^^  When 
Monday's  (?)  play  was  presented  on  the  regular  stage,'^-  the  door 
C curtain)   of  the  sacellum   (rear  stage)   was  open  when  Victoria 

"  Smith's  ed.  of  Victoria,  p.  5^ 

"  It  is  usually  said  that  the  play  was  never  acted.     For  evidence  in  favor  of  public 
presentation,  see  Malone  Society,  Collections,  I,  3,  226. 


THE  STAGES  AT  COURT  AND  THE  EARLY  THEATRES  67 

threw  down  her  letter.     Perhaps,  as  seems  to  have  been  the  case 
with  the  sacellum,  it  remained  open  throughout  the  play. 

Now  if  we  find  cases  of  the  interior  of  one  house  and  the  ex- 
terior of  another  being  represented  simultaneously  in  the  same 
scene,  we  should  not  contend  too  strongly  against  the  simultaneous 
representation  of  the  exterior  of  a  shop  and  a  "town's  end" 
as  in  George-a  Greene,  the  interior  of  Capulet's  house  and  a  neigh- 
boring street  as  in  Romeo  and  Juliet,  the  interior  of  a  palace 
and  a  grove  as  in  Greene's  Alphonsus,  or  the  interior  of  a 
queen's  tent  and  an  "unlocated  place — perhaps  the  road  to  Lon- 
don," as  in  //  You  Know  Not  Me^^  (p.  224).  In  such  cases  we 
are  certainly  just  as  much  justified  in  believing  that  the  stage 
represented  two  distinct  places  at  the  same  time  as  we  are  in  con- 
tending, as  Albright  does,  that  the  curtain  opens  or  closes  at  an 
opportune  moment  and  the  scene  changes  without  the  characters 
leaving  the  stage.^*  In  such  situations  if  it  was  necessary  that  the 
curtain  should  close  in  order  that  the  recess  behind  it  could  be 
provided  with  another  setting  to  be  used  in  a  scene  immediately 
following,  then  in  all  probability  the  curtain  closed;  if  this  was 
not  necessary,  then  in  all  probability  it  did  not  close  until  the 
end  of  the  scene  or  act,  or  even  the  end  of  the  play  for  that  matter. 

^  For  other  examples  of  this  sort  of  thing,  see  the  works  of  Reynolds  and  Neuen- 
dorff,  and  the  chapter  on  the  stage  in  Creizenach's  Geschichte,  IV.  Neuendorff  notes  that 
fewer  examples  occur  in  the  later  plays  than  in  those  before  1603.  It  will  be  noted  that 
his  theory  as  to  the  development  in  Elizabethan  staging  and  my  own  are  similar;  our 
reasons  for  such  a  development  are  entirely  different.  I  have  not  considered  it  neces- 
sary to  change  this  section  of  my  study  from  the  form  it  assumed  before  Neuendorff's 
work    was    accessible. 

3^  Drawing  a  curtain  to  explain  simultaneous  setting  is  not  a  recent  idea.  Lemazur- 
ier  in  1810,  attempting  to  explain  the  staging  of  the  early  French  Drama,  wrote: 
"Quand  on  voulait  faire  connaitre  au  spectateur  que  le  lieu  de  la  scene  allait  changer, 
on  levait  ou  on  tirait  une  tapisserie,  et  cela  se  faisait  jusqu'  a  dix  ou  douze  fois  dans 
la  meme  piece"   (Quoted  by  Rigal,  Theat.  fr.,  p.  243). 

Fleay  (Biog.  Chron.,  II,  199-200)  said  that  Meas.  for  Meas.,  Ill,  i,  ii,  should  not 
be  marked  as  separate  scenes  since  the  traverse  was  drawn  at  the  end  of  III,  1,  without 
the  characters  leaving  the  stage.     Cf.  also  remarks  on  act  IV  of  Henry  IV   (part  2). 


IV.     COURT    INFLUENCE    IN    GENERAL 

Such  is  my  theory  regarding  the  origin  and  development  of  the 
early  public  stage.  It  is  of  course  only  a  theory.  But  in  favor  of 
such  an  idea  may  be  urged  the  close  connection  that  must  have  ex- 
isted between  the  court  and  the  regular  stages  and  the  various  sug- 
gestions of  court  influence  in  the  sixteenth  century.  May  it  not 
be  said,  too,  that  as  a  result  of  our  belief  in  the  great  indebtedness 
of  the  public  stage  to  the  inn-yard  and  in  consequence  of  an  undue 
consideration  of  the  court  in  our  discussions  of  the  Elizabethan 
theatres,  we  have  overemphasized  the  crudity  of  such  structures 
and  the  inconveniences  which  audiences  and  managers  were  willing 
to  tolerate  in  the  presentation  of  plays?  There  seems  to  be  no 
reason  for  believing  that  the  London  stage  waited  until  1603  be- 
fore it  began  to  develop,  or  for  supposing  that  the  Elizabethan 
theatres  were  not  as  attractive  and  commodious  as  their  owners 
knew  how  to  make  them.  They  were  among  the  sights  of  London. 
The  Theatre  cost  £666  13s.  4d.,  the  Fortune  only  i520.  The 
Swan  was  impressive  enough  to  deceive  the  eyes  of  DeWitt.  Weever 
in  his  epigram  apparently  gave  it  precedence  over  the  theatres  of 
Rome.  Michael  Drayton  ^  in  1594  referred  to  "our  stately  stage"; 
White  '  in  1578  spoke  of  the  ' '  sumptuous  theatre  houses  a  continual 
monument  of  London's  prodigalitie  and  folly";  and  Stockwood 
referred  to  the  "houses  of  purpose  built  with  great  charges,"  the 
"gorgeous  Playing  place  erected  in  the  fieldes."  Ev.  B.  in  his 
poem  on  Jonson  's  Sejanus  has  the  words : 

"When  in  the  Globe's  fair  ring,  our  world's  best  stage, 
I  saw  Sejanus  set  with  that  rich  foil." 

Coryat  in  his  Crudeties,  1611,  declared  that  the  theatres  of  Venice 
were  "very  beggarly  and  base  in  comparison  of  our  stately  play- 
houses in  England";  and  Dekker  in  his  Belman  of  London 
(1608)^  mentioned  the  very  ambitious  strollers  who  "forsake  the 
stately  and  our  more  than  Romaine  Cittie  Stages,  to  travel  upon 
ye  hard  hoofe  fro  village  to  village  for  chees  &  butter-milke. " 
Spenser  in  his  Tears  of  the  Muses   (11.  176-7)   spoke  of  "painted 

'  Shakspere   Allusion  Book,    1,    15. 

^  Quoted  by  Wilson,   Life  in   Shakespeare's  England,   pp.    177-78,    and   elsewhere. 

3  Ed.  Grosart,  p.  81. 


COURT  INFLUENCE  IN   GENERAL  69 

theatres";  Harvey*  in  a  letter  of  1579  referred  to  "the  Theater, 
or  sum  other  painted  stage ' ' ;  while  Gosson  in  his  Plays  Confuted  ° 
complained  that  to  please  the  eye  the  devil,  "beeside  the  beautie 
of  the  houses  and  the  Stages",  sent  in  "Gearish  apparell"  and 
similar  things.  And  finally  in  view  of  such  references,  the  various 
entries  in  Henslowe's  Diary  of  payments  to  painters  cannot  be 
dismissed  with  the  statement  that  he  "had  probably  found  that 
unpainted  wood  will  not  resist  the  weather. ' '  ® 

Alongside  these  passages  should  be  placed  some  which  indicate 
that  something  else  besides  the  ' '  painted  stage ' '  '^  and  the  beauty 
of  the  houses  was  being  employed  to  appeal  to  the  Elizabethan 
love  for  show  and  pomp.  Gosson  in  his  Plays  Confuted  ^  laments 
the  "waste  of  expences  in  these  spectacles,"  "this  glittering,  this 
pompe,  this  diligence  in  setting  forth  of  plaies";  and  he  asserts® 
that  nothing  is  forgotten  "that  might  serve  to  set  out  the  matter 
with  pompe,  or  ravish  the  beholders  with  variete  of  pleasure." 
The  Preface  to  the  Second  and  Third  Blast  of  Retrait "  promises 
dire  e^dl  to  those  who  do  not  "shun  plaies,  with  such  like  pompes 
of  Satan";  and  Cross  in  his  Vertues  Commonwealth'^^  (1603) 
declares  that  plays  "feed  the  eare  with  sweete  words"  and  "the 
eye  with  variable  delight."  The  author  of  the  Third  Blast  ^~  asks 
if  the  eye.  at  theatres  is  not  "carried  awaie  with  the  pride  of 
vanitie. "  There  seems  to  be  no  reason  for  thinking  that  even 
Jonson  ^^  is  especially  ironic  when  he  has  Valentine  remark  that  in 
England  both  tragedies  and  comedies  are  ' '  set  forth  with  as  much 
state  as  can  be  imagined."  Of  more  significance  are  Nash's  boast  ^* 
that  "our  sceane  is  more  statelye  furnisht  than  ever  it  was  in  the 

*  Letter-Book   (Camden  Soc.)  pp.  67-68. 
^  Hazlitt,  Eng.  Drama  and  Stage,  p.   192. 
'  Ordish,  London  Theatres,  pp.  156-57. 

''  A  passage  translated  in  Heywood's  Apology,  p.  22,  may  be  of  interest  in  this  con- 
nection : 

"Then  [in  time  of  Romulus]  -was  the  tragicke  stage  not  painted  red, 
Or  any  mixed  staines  on  pillers  spred". 
»  Hazlitt,  Drama  and  Stage,  pp.   199-200. 
'Ibid.,  p.   192. 

lo  Hazlitt,  Drama  and  Stage,  p.  100. 
"Ed.  Grosart,  p.  120. 
"  Drama  and  Stage,  p.  129. 
"  Case  Is  Altered,  II,  iv. 
"Pierce  Pennilesse,  ed.  McKerrow,  p.  215. 


70    THE    COURT    AND   THEATRES   DURING   THE   REIGN   OP   ELIZABETH 

time  of  Roscius, ' '  and  Vennor  's  explanation  ^"^  as  to  why  he  adver- 
tised his  England's  Joy  in  1602  as  an  especially  spectacular  per- 
formance. * '  I  saw  daily, ' '  he  says, ' '  offering  to  the  God  of  pleasure, 
resident  at  the  Globe  on  the  Banke-side,  of  much  more  then  would 
have  supplyed  my  then  want :  I  noted  every  mans  hand  ready  to 
feed  the  luxury  of  his  eye,  that  puld  downe  his  hat  to  stop  the 
sight  of  his  charity,  wherefore  I  concluded  to  make  a  friend  of 
Mammon,  and  to  give  them  sound  for  words." 

And   Brathwaite   asks   in   his   Remains   after  Death    (1618)  : 

"What  Theatre  was  ere  erect'd  in  Rome, 
With  more  ambitious  state,  or  eminence, 
Then  the  whole  Theaters  we  have  of  some. 
Where  there's  nought  planted  save  sins  residence: 
The  Flagge  of  pride  blazing  th'  excellence 
Of  Albyon's  vanitie?" 

Surely  such  passages  are  not  all  to  be  explained  away  on  the 
ground  of  patriotism  or  Puritanism.  Some  of  them  are  no  doubt 
exaggerated,  but  certainly  no  more  so  than  the  bits  of  satire  which 
have  time  and  time  again  been  cited  to  show  the  crudity  of  the 
platform  for  which  Shakespere  wrote. 

And  other  matters  must  be  considered  in  an  attempt  to  ascertain 
the  conditions  under  which  plays  were  presented  in  the  regular 
London  theatres.  In  the  first  place,  the  conveniences  and  equip- 
ment were  of  course  entirely  different  when  the  actors  were  at  home 
from  what  they  were  when  they  traveled  in  the  provinces  and  on 
the  continent.  Barn-stormers  were  scoffed  at  then  as  they  are 
today.  We  have  already  cited  Dekker's  assertion  that  certain 
vanity  stricken  actors  were  inclined  to  leave  the  more  than  Roman 
city  stages  in  order  to  act  leading  roles  in  the  provinces.  Perhaps 
the  most  famous  passage  in  this  connection  is  the  often  quoted 
statement  of  Fynes  Moryson :  "  So  as  I  remember  that  when  some 
of  our  cast  dispised  stage  players  came  out  of  England  into  Ger- 
many, and  played  at  Franckford  in  the  tyme  of  the  Mart,  having 
nether  a  complete  number  of  actours,  nor  any  good  apparell,  nor 
any  ornament  of  the  stage,  yet  the  Germans,  not  understanding  a 
worde  they  sayde,  both  men  and  wemen,  flocked  wonderfully  to 
see  theire  gesture  and  action,  rather  than  heare  them,  speaking 
English  which  they  understoode  not,  and  pronouncing  peeces  and 

**  Collier,  Illustrations  of  Old  Eng.  Lit.,  Ill,  p.  9. 


COURT  INFLUENCE  IN  GENERAL  71 

patches  of  English  playes,  which  my  selfe  and  some  English  men 
there  present  could  not  lieare  without  great  wearysomenes."  ^^ 

Much  later  Donald  Lupton  ^^  wrote  that  when  actors  ' '  flye  into 
the  country, "  it  is  "a  suspicion  that  they  are  either  poore  or  want 
cloatlies,  or  else  company,  or  a  New  Play." 

Perhaps  the  inconveniences  that  naturally  beset  the  traveling 
troupes  should  be  borne  in  mind  when  we  read  such  plays  as 
Narcissus;  or  such  directions  as  "Exit  Venus,  or  if  you  can  con- 
veniently, let  a  chair  come  down  from  top  of  the  stage  and  draw 
her  up"  (Greene's  AlpJionsus)  ;  or  the  one  in  Johoi  a  Kent  and 
John  a  Cumber,  which  requests  that  a  spirit  be  allowed  to  appear 
out  of  a  tree,  "  if  it  can  be. ' '  There  is  little  doubt  that  such  things 
were  "convenient"  in  the  regular  London  theatres  long  before 
1603. 

[y  In  the  second  place,  it  should  be  noted  that  while  sign-boards 
were  unquestionably  used  on  the  early  stage,  their  use  does  not 
mean  that  more  pretentious  properties  were  not  employed.  The 
custom  of  titling  properties  as  well  as  pageants  and  plays,  and 
characters  in  pageants,  masques  and  plays,  is  at  least  as  old  as  the 

.  reign  of  Henry  VIII  at  whose  court  the  most  elaborate  and 
gorgeous  structures  were  duly  labeled.  This  is  revealed  in  the 
large  "pas"  prepared  by  Gibson^®  in  1515,  "kawUd  the  wrythyng 
there  over,  the  Pavyllyon  un  the  Plas  Parlos";  the  magnificent 
castle  shown  at  Greenwich  in  the  second  year  of  his  reign  with 
the  title  ' '  le  Fortresse  dangerus ' '  written  on  its  front ;  ^^  and  the 
"castle  of  cole  blacke"  titled  "The  dolorous  Castle"  which  was 
employed  the  following  year  in  the  tourney  at  Greenwich.^*'    That 

^8  Shakespeare's  Europe,  ed.  Hughes,  p.  304. 

'"Country  Carbonadoed  (Aungervyle  Soc.  Reprints,  second  series,  p.  759).  For 
other  references  to  the  "cast  dispised"  players  in  the  provinces,  see  Jests  of  Peele,  Bul- 
len's  ed.  of  Peele,  II,  389;  Dekker's  Newes  from  Hell,  ed.  Grosart,  p.  146;  Dekker's 
Wonderful  Teare,  ed.  Grosart,  p.   100. 

"  Brewer,  II,  p.  1501. 

»  Hall,  Chronicle,  p.  526. 

^Ibid.,  p.  533.  The  prison  of  Discord  in  1562,  "Extreme  Oblivion",  "Castell  Loy- 
all",  and  "Fortresse  of  Perfect  Beautie"  used  in  the  tourney  of  1581,  etc.,  were  no  doubt 
titled,  (cf.  Reyher,  p.  379,  Brotanek,  27-28).  In  this  connection  should  be  mentioned 
the  payment  to  "Wm.  Smythe  for  ayall  paper  inke  and  colores  for  the  wryting  of  greate 
letters"  for  the  Latin  comedies  at  Westminster  School  in  1564  (Murray,  II,  168),  and 
the  entries  in  the  Revels  Accounts  "for  the  Garnyshinge  of  XIIII  titles"  (Feuillerat,  p. 
328)  and  for  the  "Painting  of  IX  titles  with  copartmentes"  (ihid.,  p.  338),  some  of 
which  may  have  been  titles  for  properties,  (cf.  Reynolds,  Some  Principles,  I,  21;  W.  J. 
Lawrence,  Sh.  Jahrbuch,  XLV,  pp.   148,   149). 


72    THE    COURT   AND   THEATRES    DURING    THE   REIGN   OP   ELIZABETH 

this  practice  was  not  confined  to  the  sixteenth  century  is  shown  by 
the  "Honoris  Fanum,"  of  Chapman's  Masque  (1613),  the 
"Lovers'  Valley"  of  Tatham's  pastoral  (1632),  the  titled  altar  in 
Jonson's  Hymenaei,  and  other  evidence. 

The  gorgeous  pageants  prepared  for  the  coronations  of  sovereigns 
were  regularly  titled.  The  first  pageant  ^^  approached  by  Elizabeth 
in  1559,  for  example,  bore  the  inscription,  ' '  The  uniting  of  the  two 
houses  of  Lancaster  and  Yorke, ' '  while  the  pageant  in  Fleet  Street 
on  the  same  occasion  was  similarly  titled. ^^  When  James  I  entered 
London  in  1603,  "Londinium"  was  written  over  the  battlement, 
or  first  gate,  approached  by  him,  while  beneath  the  word  above  was 
written  in  smaller  letters,  "Camera  Regia."  The  pageant  at  Soper 
Lane  was  titled  ' '  Nova  Faelix  Arabia, ' '  -^  etc. 

This  Elizabethan  passion  for  inscription  is  illustrated,  not  only 
by  motto-bedecked  arras,  walls  and  pageants,  by  labeled  gateways 
and  pageants,  but  by  labeled  characters  as  well.  And  in  some  cases 
at  least  the  people  of  the  day  in  their  desire  to  be  understood  went 
to  what  appeals  to  us  as  being  ridiculous  extremes.  Writing  the 
name  across  the  back  and  breast  of  so  well  known  a  character  as 
the  Devil  is  a  case  in  point.-*  "Having  tolde  you  that  her  name 
was  Justice,"  says  Dekker,  in  describing  a  pageant  at  the  coron- 
ation of  James,  "I  hope  you  will  not  put  me  to  describe  what 
properties  she  held  in  her  hands,  sithence  every  painted  cloath  can 
informe  you. ' '  -^  Yet  on  occasion  Justice  as  well  as  Time  was 
labeled.  One  of  the  pageants  at  the  coronation  of  Elizabeth  con- 
tained a  very  fair  tree  ' '  with  leaves  as  greene  as  arte  could  devise. ' ' 
At  the  top  was  set  a  table  with  the  words,  ' '  A  palme  tree. ' '  ^® 

Certain  abstractions  were  difficult  to  costume.  The  Eliza- 
bethans, however,  were  not  willing  to  be  misunderstood.  Explan- 
atory speeches  and  tables  were  considered  necessary,  but  suggestive 

"Holinshed,  IV,  161. 

^  Ihid.,  p.   170. 

2»Dekker'8  account,  Nichols,  Prog,  of  Eliz.,  ed.  1805,  III,  pp.  52,   61. 

"  Cf.  Like  Will  to  Like. 

^  Nichols,  Prog,  of  Eliz.,  Ill,  74.  For  other  examples  of  titling  characters  in  plays, 
masques  and  pageants,  see  Spenser's  Fairy  Queen,  III,  12,  iv;  the  description  of  Eliza 
beth's  coronation  in  Nichols,  ed.  1823,  I,  pp.  41-50 ;  Dekker's  account  of  entry  of  James 
p.  58;  Hall's  Chronicle,  pp.  582,  631;  Pollard,  Fifteenth  Century  Prose  and  Terse,  p 
312;  Dekker's  Old  Fortunatus ;  Literary  Remains  of  Ed.  TI,  p.  ccxci;  Collier,  Hist.  Dram 
Lit.,  1,  82;  Reyher,  Lea  Masques  Anglais, 'pp.  5,   11,  etc. 

2«  Nichols,  Prog,  of  Eliz.,  I,  53. 


COURT  INFLUENCE  IN  GENERAL  73 

accessories  were  also  used.  This  is  brought  out  especially  well  in 
the  description  of  the  pageant  at  Cornhill  on  the  occasion  of 
Elizabeth's  coronation:  "Eche  of  these  personages  [Wisdom,  Pure 
Religion,  Follie,  Adultery,  etc.],  according  to  their  proper  names 
and  properties,  had  not  onely  their  names  in  plaine  and  perfit  writ- 
ing set  upon  their  breastes  easily  to  be  read  of  all,  but  also  every  of 
them  was  aptly  and  properly  apparelled,  so  that  hys  apparell  and 
name  did  agree  to  expresse  the  same  person  that  in  title  he  repre- 
sented."" 

Now  what  has  all  this  to  do  with  Elizabethan  stage  properties? 
Just  this,  it  seems  to  me.  If  inscription  is  to  be  considered  a 
crudity,  then  it  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  crudity  of  the  era  and  not 
of  the  public  stage.  Such  references  as  those  cited  above  tend  to 
show,  too,  that  above  all  things  the  people  of  the  period  were 
striving  after  clearness  in  their  "shows,"  a  feature  further  illus- 
trated in  explanatory  prologues  and  soliloquies,  choruses,  irrelevant 
speeches,  repetitions,  and  the  self-revelations  of  characters  whose 
names  are  already  well  known  to  the  audience.  This  being  true, 
the  use  of  signboards  in  an  age  when  programs  were  unknown  and 
titling  was  a  fashion  by  no  means  shows  that  before  1603  elaborate 
properties  were  infrequent  on  the  London  stages  and  their  places 
supplied  "with  their  Nuncupations  onely  in  Text  Letters."  And 
there  is  always  the  possibility,  too,  that  even  stage  directions  so 
capable  of  being  suspected  as  "Enter — from  the  Numidian  moun- 
taines,"  "Enter  at  Coleharbour, "  "Enter  from  the  forest"  refer 
to  something  more  elaborate  than  bits  of  Elizabethan  editing  or 
stage-doors  provided  with  sign-boards. 

Again,  the  words  of  various  writers  regarding  the  limitations 
of  the  stage  do  not  argue  for  primitive  conditions  any  more  than 
they  show  that  the  age  was  demanding  more  than  the  stage — Eliza- 
bethan or  twentieth  century — could  present.  Battles,  for  example, 
are  ridiculed  by  Sidney  and  Jonson,  and  the  inability  to  present 
them  adequately  is  referred  to  by  Shakspere  and  the  author  of  The 
Play  of  Stncley  (11.  2658-61)  ;  yet  there  is  much  reason  for  believing 
that  the  Elizabethans  knew  how  to  present  such  things  as  real- 
istically as  various  companies  present  them  at  the  present  time. 
At  any  rate,  in  the  "understanding  age"  that  followed  the  Eliza- 

'^  Ibid.,  I,  44-45. 


74   THE    COURT    AND   THEATRES   DURING    THE   REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH 

bethans,  battle  scenes  were  still  objectionable  to  the  satirist.^*  Nor 
is  it  an  especial  discredit  to  the  Elizabethan  public  theatre  that  it 
could  but  lamely  "expresse  a  sea,"  as  Heywood  puts  it.^^  Inigo 
Jones  and  his  workers  at  court  did  not  always  succeed  in  their 
expression  of  the  same  object.  "There  was  a  great  engine  at  the 
lower  end  of  the  room,"  wrote  Sir  Dudley  Carleton,3°  describing 
Jonson's  Masque  of  Blackness,  "which  had  motion,  and  in  it  were 
the  images  of  sea-horses  (with  other  terrible  fishes)  which  were 
ridden  by  the  Moors.  The  indecorum  was,  that  there  was  all  fish 
and  no  water." 

Elizabethan  expressions  of  storms,  rain,  descending  clouds, 
blazing  stars  and  comets,  flaming  heavens,  brazen  heads  that  speak 
and  flash  fire,  fire-shooting  monsters,  trees  and  arbors  that  spring 
from  the  ground,  mists,  flying  gods  and  animals,  rivers,  brooks, — 
all  may  have  been  lamely  expressed  from  our  point  of  view  or  that 
of  Sir  Dudley  Carleton,  but  they  are  hardly  the  things  to  be 
expected  on  a  careless  and  unprovided  stage.  The  mere  fact  that 
managers  w^ere  attempting  to  reproduce  such  things  indicates  what 
the  audience  was  demanding  and  what  the  theatres  were  doing  in 
order  that  nothing  might  be  forgotten  which  "might  serve  to  set 
out  the  matter  with  pompe,  or  ravish  the  beholders  with  variety 
of  pleasure." 

Nor  can  stage  directions  indicative  of  ingenuity  be  dismissed 
with  the  assertion  that  they  are  the  additions  of  printers  with  a 
sense  for  business.  A  tendency  to  do  this  is  seen  even  in  Neuen- 
dorff's  treatise,  which  to  a  greater  degree  than  most  discussions 
recognizes  the  well-equipped  condition  of  the  Elizabethan  property- 
room  and  the  adequate  presentation  of  spectacular  plays.  Writing, 
for  example,  of  the  stage  direction  in  Tamburlaine  (pt.  II,  III, 
2) — "and  the  drums  sounding  a  dolefull  march,  the  Towne  burn- 
ing"— Neuendorff  (p.  155)  regards  the  last  words  as  episch.  A 
few  torches,  he  says,  on  the  upper  stage  would  have  sufficed  to 
symbolize  the  conflagration.  He  is  perhaps  right  in  supposing  that 
a  town  of  painted  canvas  was  not  brought  into  use  at  this  particular 
point,  but  it  is  not  at  all  probable  that  the  Elizabethans,  accustomed 

^  Dryden,  Essay  on  Dramatic  Poesy,  ed.  Ker,  p.   62. 
"  Fair  Maid  of  the  West,  chorus  at  end  of  Act  IV. 
*"  Nichols,  Prog,  of  James,  I,  473. 


COURT  INFLUENCE  IN  GENERAL  75 

to  the  most  elaborate  fireworks  in  pageants,  processions  and 
"shows,"  would  have  tolerated  such  a  lame  expression  of  a  burn- 
ing city  as  that  suggested  above,  especially  in  such  a  grandiloquent 
performance  as  Tamburlaine.  Similarly,  he  says  (p.  175)  of  the 
direction  in  A  Looking  Glass  for  London — "Jonas  the  Prophet 
cast  out  of  the  whale's  belly  upon  the  stage" — "Ein  Sprung  zur 
Tiir  hinein  war  sicher  die  einzige  Verkorperung  der  sehr  epischen 
Anweisung. ' ' 

Some  of  the  directions  in  this  particular  play  are,  I  admit, 
singularly  descriptive,  still  I  for  one  prefer  to  accept  them  at  their 
face  value  and  believe  that  in  this  extremely  spectacular  perform- 
ance a  fair  arbor  actually  arose  when  the  Magi  beat  the  earth  with 
their  rods,  that  Radagon  was  "swallowed"  by  fire  as  the  vine  was 
by  the  serpent  in  the  same  play.  And  above  all  things,  is  it  to  be 
expected  that  such  an  unspectacular  representation  of  so  famous 
a  story  as  that  of  Jonah  and  the  whale  would  have  been  tolerated 
by  an  audience  boisterous  and  free  with  pippins,  uncontaminated 
as  yet  by  Higher  Criticism,  and  accustomed  from  infancy  to  such 
thing-s  as  hell-mouths  and  monsters  of  brown  paper?  And  to  my 
mind,  it  is  the  less  fortunate  companies,  which  were  willing  to  adopt 
such  extremely  symbolic  methods  as  to  represent  a  Avhale  by  a 
stage  door  or  a  forest  by  a  twig,^^  that  in  such  plays  as  Narcissus, 

"NeuendorfE  (pp.  170-171)  in  opposing  Reynolds's  idea  that  painted  cloths  were 
regularly  used  in  representing  groves  and  forests,  argues  that  such  things  were  fre- 
quently suggested  by  a  single  tree.  To  be  sure,  the  existence  of  numerous  practicable 
trees  on  the  Elizabethan  stages  cannot  be  proved  from  Henslowe's  inventory  or  from  stage 
directions,  but  forests  are  just  the  things  that  would  not  have  been  represented  by  such 
articles.  Practicable  trees  were  apparently  rare  in  court  plays  and  even  in  masques. 
They  are  rare  on  any  stage.  Neuendorff  may  of  course  be  right,  but  the  chief  bit  of 
evidence  cited  in  favor  of  his  theory  by  no  means  supports  it.  He  quotes  the  prologue 
to  Heywood's  Woman  Killed  with  Kindness,  amd  remarks  that  when  the  prologue  speaker 
uttered  the  words,  "We  could  afford  this  twig  a  timber  tree",  he  pointed  to  the  "twig" 
which  was  placed  on  the  stage  before  the  play  opened  and  which  later  on  served  for  a 
grove.  The  line  is  figurative,  however,  as  the  following  lines  of  the  passage  show.  In 
his  prologue  to  Fair  Maid  of  the  Exchange  Heywood  similarly  uses  the  word  "twig"  m 
a  figurative  sense: 

"Meane  while  shore  up  your  tender  pamping  twig. 

That  yet  on  humble  ground  doth  lowly  lie: 

Your  favours  sunneshine  guilding  once  this  sprig, 

It  may  yeeld  Nectar  for  the  gods  on  hie ; 

Though  our  Invention  lame,  imperfect  be, 

Yet  give  the  Cripple  alms  for  charity." 
The   Elizabethans   represented   the   interior   of   a   house   by   an    arras-bedecked   stage    set 
with  a  table  and  four  chairs,  they  laid  siege  to  the  tiring-house,  etc.,  but  these  things  are 
hardly  analogous  to  the  "symbolizing"  of  a  forest  by  the  song  of  ft  bird,  a  twig,  a  "Tim- 
ber tree",  or  even  two  "bowes". 


76   THE    COURT    AND   THEATRES    DURING   THE   REIGN   OF    ELIZABETH 

John  a  Kent  and  Midsummer  Night 's  Dream  are  being  burlesqued, 
just  as  much  as  the  unimaginative  souls  are  being  satirized  who 
insist  on  the  actual  performance  of  moonlight  and  who  refuse  to 
accept  a  bucket  for  a  well. 

Perhaps  after  all  the  Elizabethan  imagination  was  not  the 
child-like,  all-sufficing  thing  that  it  was  once  supposed  to  be.  Per- 
haps, too,  it  was  not  so  capable  of  being  aroused  as  we  have  some- 
times thought.  Poets  were  using  poetry  to  arouse  the  imagination 
of  their  audiences,  but  they  were  likewise  resorting  to  other  appeals. 
Shakspere,  for  instance,  gives  a  description  thrilling  enough,  when 
properly  spoken,  to  arouse  the  imagination  of  any  of  us;  yet  at 
the  opportune  moment  an  alarm  is  sounded,  chambers  are  dis- 
charged, and  Henry  V  speaks  his  famous  oration  before  the  walls 
of  Harfleur.  The  description  of  a  wreck  occupies  two  pages  in 
A  Looking  Glass  for  London,  IV,  i,  still  the  character  who  utters 
it  and  the  persons  who  accompany  him  enter  "wet  from  the  sea." 
Gory  hands  and  faces,  blood  that  follows  the  stab,  the  destruction 
of  properties  for  realistic  effect,  ''a  great  skirmish  in  Rome  and 
long,"  the  crowing  of  cocks,  even  the  cry  of  invisible  prisoners  in 
the  Marshalsea  or  "a  noise  within  of  driving  beasts"  may  all 
appeal  to  our  modern  senses  as  being  somewhat  ridiculous.  Even 
the  singing  of  birds,  the  continued  ringing  of  bells  during  the 
massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew,  the  tramping  of  horses,  the  sound  of 
hammers  in  a  forge,  "Allarums  afar  of,"  "Drummes  afar  off 
marching ' '  may  perhaps  be  questionable  as  suggestive  devices ;  yet 
they  at  least  imply  that  the  dramatists  and  actors  of  the  times 
were  not  leaving  everything  to  the  imagination,  and  that  they  were 
using  means  other  than  the  beauty  of  their  stages,  spectacular  de- 
vices, and  "gearish  apparell"  to  catch  and  hold  their  London 
audiences. 

Under  such  circumstances,  then,  when  rival  dramatic  companies 
who,  as  Dekker^^  has  it,  "salute  one  another  like  sworne  brothers" 
at  the  beginning  of  a  theatrical  season,  "yet  before  the  middle  of  it, 
shall  they  wish  one  anothers  throats  cut  for  two  pence,"  when  such 
companies  M^ere  obviously  putting  forth  every  effort  to  please  their 
patrons,  it  is  certainly  to  be  expected  that  they  should  have  taken 
advantage  of  their  experiences  at  court  and  their  rehearsals  for 

'^Raven's  Almanac,  ed.  Grosart,  pp.  210-211. 


COURT  INFLUENCE  IN  GENERAL  77 

court  performances,  and  that  they  should  have  flattered  their 
audiences  with  glimpses  into  the  method  of  doing  things  at  the 
centre  of  dramatic  activities.  Nor  is  it  probable,  as  was  suggested 
above,  that  their  audiences  would  have  always  remained  contented 
with  the  cruder  presentations  necessitated  on  improvised  stages. 
They  themselves,  even  the  most  humble,  had  looked  upon  the  page- 
ants, processions  and  "princely  pleasures"  devised  to  entertain  the 
splendor-loving  daughter  of  Henry  VIII  in  an  age  characterized 
by  extravagance  and  richness.  The  host  of  workmen  employed  at 
court  entertainments  served  as  a  natural  medium  for  advertising 
the  wonders  of  performances  before  the  Queen.  Some  of  the 
frequenters  at  least  of  the  London  theatres,  exclusive  of  gallants, 
had  themselves  probably  been  privileged  to  gaze  upon  the  splendor 
of  court  amusements  ;^^  and  all  London  was  naturally  curious  re- 
garding the  methods  employed  in  entertaining  Elizabeth  and  her 
Court. 

This  curiosity  is  brought  out  most  strikingly  perhaps  by  the 
notorious  England's  Joy  of  1602,  advertised  "to  be  acted  only  by 
gentlemen  and  gentlewomen  ^*  of  account ' '  with  the  attendant 
splendor,  a  show  which  in  spite  of  the  enormously  high  price  of 
admission  ' '  drew  more  Connies  in  a  purse-nette  than  ever  were  tak- 
en at  any  draught  about  London. ' '  ^^  And  later  when  Vennor  wrote 
an  apology  for  his  earlier  conduct,  he  used  the  very  significant 
words :  ' '  The  report  of  gentlemen  and  gentlewomens  actions,  being 
indeed  the  flagge  to  our  theatre,  Avas  not  meerely  f alcification. ' '  ^^ 

Nor  must  we  overlook  in  this  connection  the  gallants  them- 
selves, who  from  an  early  date  ^^  were  regular  frequenters  of  the 
public  theatres.  These  gentlemen  at  least  were  accustomed  to  the 
"doings"    at    court;    and    whereas    it    became    a    convention    for 

*^  Reyher,  Les  Masques  Anglais,  pp.  37,  41-44;  Dekker,  Worke  for  Armorours, 
ed.  Grosart,  p.  131;  Peregrinatio  Scholastica,  ed.  Bullen,  p.  77;  Hall,  Chronicle,  p. 
519;  Evans,  Eng.  Masques,  Introd.,  p.  1.;  Davidson,  Greene  in  Oonceipt  (Grosart,  Oc- 
casional Issues,  VI,  40). 

^Letters  of  Chamberlain,  Camden  Soc,  p.  163.  Apparently,  the  advertising  of  the 
acting  by  "gentlemen"  had  served  at  an  earlier  date  to  draw  a  crowd.  Cf.  Hazlitt, 
Shakespeare  Jest  Books,  ed.  of  1881,  Pt.  2,  pp.  145-7. 

"  Iravailes  of  the  Three  Eng.  Brothers,  Bullen's  ed.  of  Day,  56. 

'*  Collier,   Illustrations  of   Old  Eng.   Lit.,   Ill,    10. 

^'  I  give  here  for  what  it  is  worth  a  curious  passage  from  Edmund  Bohun's  Charac- 
ter of  Queen  Elizabeth,  (Nichols  Prog,  of  Eliz.,  ed.  1788,  II,  48):  "The  coming  of  the 
Duke  of  Alengon  into  England  opened  a  way  to  a  more  free  way  of  living 


78    THE    COURT    AND   THEATRES    DURING   THE   REIGN   OF    ELIZABETH 

satirists  to  ridicule  their  conduct  at  the  play,  it  is  virtually  certain 
that  the  managers  of  the  time  strove  to  satisfy  their  courtly  de- 
mands in  ways  other  than  building  rooms  fit  for  gentlemen  and 
allowing  them  to  occupy  the  stage,  as  they  had  seen  their  superiors 
do  at  private  performances,  a  privilege  in  itself  suggesting  court 
influence. 

Such  circumstances  as  these  certainly  imply  that  the  regular 
companies  took  advantage  of  their  experience  at  court;  yet  when 
one  attempts  to  say  just  what  they  received  there  and  what  they 
did  not  receive,  the  task  is  dangerous  if  not  impossible.  This  is 
especially  true  with  respect  to  "scenery."  Regarding  the  use  of 
painted  cloths  and  painted  canvas  stretched  on  frames  at  the 
regular  theatres  before  1603,  I  am  as  yet  able  to  add  little  or 
nothing  to  the  discussions  of  Baker,^®  Schelling  ^^  and  Neuen- 
dorif ;  *°  and  while  I  can  in  no  sense  prove  the  common  employment 
of  such  things  at  the  Curtain,  Globe,  or  even  at  the  Blackfriars,  I 
believe  that  in  view  of  what  has  preceded  they  were  much  better 
known  at  these  places  than  we  are  prone  to  admit.  The  peculiar 
structure  of  the  stage  made  unnecessary  any  extensive  use  of 
"howses,"  "battlements,"  etc.,  so  common  at  performances  at 
court;  yet  for  reasons  already  given,  it  would  seem  that  when 
separate  structures  were  called  for  in  particular  plays,  they  were 
surely  used, 

I  would  not  say  that  scenes  in  the  modern  sense  were  employed 
at  the  public  theatres,  but  as  Professor  Baker  has  noted,  it  is  ex- 
tremely probable  that  painted  "drops"  were  often  called  into  use. 

the  Queen  danced  often  then,  and  omitted  no  sort  of  recreation,  pleasant  conversation,  or 
variety  of  delights,  for  his  satisfaction :  at  the  same  time  the  plenty  of  good  dishes, 
pleasant  wines,  fragrant  ointments  and  perfumes,  dances,  masques  and  variety  of  rich 
attires,  were  all  taken  up,  and  used,  to  shew  him  how  much  he  was  honoured.  There 
were  then  acted  comedies  and  tragedies  with  much  cost  and  splendor :  from  whence  pro- 
ceeded in  after-times  an  unrestrainable  desire  of  frequenting  these  divertisements ;  so 
that  there  was  afterwards  a  greater  concourse  at  the  theatre,  than  at  the  sermon.  When 
these  things  had  once  been  entertained,  the  courtiers  were  no  more  to  be  reclaimed  from 
them ;  and  they  could  not  be  satiated  or  wearied  with  them.  But  when  Alenjon  was 
once  dismissed  and  gone,  the  Queen  herself  left  off  these  divertisements,  and  betook 
herself,  as  before,  to  the  care  of  her  kingdom."  I  have  not  seen  Bohun's  source,  R. 
Johnstone's  Historia  Rerum  Brittannicarium  (1665). 

**  Shakespeare's  Development,  pp.  96-8. 

**  Eliz.  Drama,  I,  172-75;  Pub.  of  Numi8m,atic  and  Antiquarian  Soc.  of  Philadelphia, 
1910,   pp.    153-4. 

«•  TolkBbilhne,  Chap.  VIII. 


COURT  INFLUENCE  IN  GENERAL  79 

In  favor  of  such  "scenery"  may  be  cited  the  "piece  of  perspective" 
referred  to  in  Cynthia's  Revels,  the  "painted  stage"  of  Spenser 
and  Harvey,  together  with  other  early  allusions  to  the  beauty  of 
the  playhouses,  Henslowe's  "Sittie  of  Rome,"  his  payment  of 
twenty  shillings  to  the  "paynter  of  the  propertyes  for  the  playe 
of  the  iii  brothers,"*^  and  the  discussion  above  of  the  "heavens." 
It  is  possible,  too,  that  the  later  hand,  perhaps  Malone's,  is  not 
entirely  right  in  interpreting  as  "Tassos  Picture"  the  entry  in 
Henslovre's  Diary,  "lent  unto  w™  borne  the  14  of  July,  1598,  for 
to  geve  the  paynter  in  earneste  of  his  picter.  "*- 

The  cost  of  such  decorations  need  not  worry  us.*'*  Nor  is  there 
much  diffculty  in  providing  places  for  them  in  the  public  theatres. 
Professor  Baker  suggests  that  they  could  be  suspended  at  the  rear 
of  the  upper  stage.  They  could  also  be  suspended  at  the  front 
of  it,  as  in  Loves  Metamorphosis  where  a  curtain  painted  like  a 
cloud  probably  concealed  the  upper  stage.*^'' 

And  is  it  assuming  too  much  to  suggest  that  hangings  or  tapes- 
try painted  to  represent  a  "city,"  for  example,  or  a  forest,  could 
have  hung  before  the  ' '  fore-front ' '  of  the  Elizabethan  stage ;  that  is, 
could,  on  occasion,  have  hung  before  the  side  doors  or  have  taken 
the  place  of  the  lower  curtain?  Similar  cloths  sometimes  adorned 
the  skene  of  the  Attic  theatre.*^  On  the  early  Renaissance  platform 
in  Italy  the  decorative  back-cloth  was  frequently  painted  in  per- 
spective to  represent  a  street  or  landscape.**  According  to  Drake,*' 
the  hangings  in  Elizabethan  houses  were  adorned  with  landscapes 
as  well  as  pictures  of  historical  events. 

"  Diary,  ed.   Greg,   I,    184. 

^Ihid.,  p.  90.  Describing  the  letter  of  Sept.  28,  1593,  from  Henslowe  to  Alleyn, 
Greg  says  that  there  are  "several  pen  and  ink  sketches  on  the  outer  leaf,  one  apparently 
for  some  scenery  in  perspective"  {Henslowe  Papers,  p.  39).  It  would  be  fortunate  if 
we  could  discover  the  author  of  this  sketch. 

*2a  Reynolds,  Mod.  Phil.,  IX,   78. 

*^^  Cf.  in  this  connection  the  curtain  painted  like  a  cloud  which  opened  before  the 
pageant  at  James's  entry  into  London,  the  "double  vale  so  artificially  painted  that  it 
seemed  as  darke  cloudes  had  hung  before  it"  which  concealed  the  stage  in  Campion's 
Masque  in  honor  of  Lord  Hayes,  the  traverse  which  "served  as  a  curtains  for  the  first 
Scene"  in  Daniel's  Tethys  Festivall  and  which  "was  figured  a  darke  cloude,  interior  with 
certaine  sparkling  starres". 

«  Haigh,   Attic  Theatre,  3rd  ed.,   chap.  IV. 

"  Mantzius,  Hist,  of  Theatrical  Art,  II,  224,  321.  For  conditions  in  Spain  see 
Rennert,  Spanish  Stage,  89. 

«M.  and  His  Times.  II,  114. 


80   THE   COURT   AND   THEATRES    DURING    THE   REIGN   OP   ELIZABETH 

That  painted  cloths  which  could  fall  or  be  drawn  aside  were 
used  in  theatrical  performances  of  the  time,  there  can  be  no  doubt.*" 
The  painted  cloth  which  fell  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII  is  perhaps 
an  example.*^  The  curtains  painted  like  clouds  referred  to  above 
are  cases  in  point.  Similar  to  what  the  public  stages  surely  could 
have  approximated  are  the  " landstschap "  consisting  of  "small 
woods,  and  here  and  there  a  void  place  filled  with  huntings, ' '  which 
fell  in  Jonson's  Masque  of  Blackness  exposing  an  artifical  sea,  and 
the  "travers  painted  in  perspective,  like  the  wall  of  a  Cittie  with 
battlements,  over  which  were  scene  the  tops  of  houses,"  which  was 
drawn  in  The  Masque  of  Flowers,  thus  revealing  a  "Garden  of 
Glorious  and  strange  beauty."  Possibly  the  use  of  painted  cloths 
to  represent  wood  scenes,  decorations  as  cheap  as  practicable  trees 
and  more  easily  handled,  helps  to  explain  why  in  the  plays  of  the 
period  we  have  reference  after  reference  to  groves  and  few  cases 
where  the  existence  of  practicables  can  be  actually  proved. 

I  am  aware  of  Flecknoe's  assertion  that  the  theatres  of  Eliza- 
bethan England  "were  but  plain  and  simple,  with  no  other  scenes 
nor  decorations  of  the  stages,  hut  only  old  tapestry,"  and  of 
Corey's  words,  "Coarse  handings  then  instead  of  scenes,  were 
worn."  Tapestry,  then,  according  to  these  persons,  regularly 
served  for  scenes.  Perhaps  the  fact  that  cities  or  forests  were 
suspended  on  the  stage  rather  than  rolled  or  shoved  in  was  what 
appealed  to  these  gentlemen  as  being  especially  simple  and  primi- 
tive.    Their  scenes  would  probably  seem  equally  primitive  to  us. 

High-sounding  descriptions  and  elaborate  gestures  directed  at 
such  painted  cloths — not  necessarily  perspective — do,  I  admit,  ap- 
peal to,  us  as  being  rather  absurd,  but  no  more  so,  it  seems  to  me, 
than  if  they  were  directed  at  a  bare  wall  or  a  titled  stage  door. 
Some  of  us  perhaps  would  wish  that  the  Elizabethans  had  been 
satisfied  with  poetry  alone,  but  that  this  was  actually  the  case  is 
not  at  all  probable.  "And  the  arke  must  be  horded  rounde  about," 
reads  a  direction  in  the  Chester  Deluge,^^  "and  one  the  hordes  all 
the  beastes  and  fowles  hereafter  receaved,  must  be  painted  that 
thes  wordes  may  agree  with  the  pictures."    It  is  at  least  probable 

**  Regarding   canvas  painted   in   perspective    at   court,    see   Neuendorfif,    pp.    151   flf. ; 
Feuillerat,  Le  Bureau,  pp.   51,   68,   70;   Mrs.  Helmholz-Phelan,    P.   M.   L.   A.   XVII,   203. 
«  Cal.  State  Papers,  Venetian,   1527-33,  p.   60. 
«  Ed.  Diemling,  1.  54. 


COURT  INFLUENCE  IN  GENERAL  81 

that  in  some  of  the  more  detailed  Elizabethan  descriptions  a  similar 
care  was  taken  that  the  "wordes  may  agree  with  the  pictures." 
And  the  Renaissance  love  for  word-painting,  it  may  be  noted  too, 
manifests  itself  even  in  court  plays  where  "scenery"  was  certainly 
employed. 

We  are  perhaps  on  firmer  ground  in  the  discussion  of  other 
indications  of  court  influence  before  1603,  or  even  before  the  fitting 
up  of  the  Blackfriars  in  1597,  which  Professor  Wallace  argues, 
heralds  a  new  era  in  the  dramatic  activities  of  London.  The 
elaborate  processions  with  their  display  of  heraldry  and  costume, 
and  the  spectacular  dumb  shows  of  the  period  were  first  used  to 
please  the  eye  of  Elizabeth  with  her  inlierited  love  for  pomp, 
pageantry  and  chivalric  exercises.  And  such  features,  it  must  be 
remembered,  occur  in  plays  presented  long  before  1603,  as  Locrine, 
Knack  to  Know  an  Honest  Man,  James  IV,  Tamar  Cam,  Three 
Lords  of  London,  and  Battle  of  Alcazar. 

The  frequency  of  "shows"  is  revealed  by  other  evidence.  Gosson 
in  his  Plays  C outfitted  *^  mentions  as  one  of  the  tricks  of  the  day 
the  "wringing  in"  "a  shewe  to  furnish  the  Stage  when  it  is  to 
bare";  and  the  misplaced  prologue  to  The  Wars  of  Cyrus  (1594) 
exclaims  with  IMarlowe  as  model : 

"Againe  with  toies 
Or   needlesse   antickes,   imitations, 
Or  shewes,  or  new  devices  sprung  a  late, 
We  have  exilde  them  from  our  Tragicke  stage, 
As  trash  of  their  tradition,  that  can  bring 
No  instance  nor  excuse  for  what  they  do."  ** 

Even  the  more  dignified  masque,  which  throughout  the  century 
had  been  presented  at  court  in  connection  with  plays,  seems  to 
have  been  practiced  in  the  regular  theatres  at  an  earlier  date  than 
is  sometimes  assigned.  Says  Professor  Wallace,^^  "these  masques 
within  the  play  at  Blackfriars  were  a  wholly  new  feature  in  the 
evolution  of  the  drama."  Is  this  entirely  true?  Among  the 
things,  according  to  Gosson,  with  which  the  devil  was  wont  to 

*»Hazlitt,   Eng.   Drama  and  Stage,  p.   188. 

™  On  the  dumb  shows  of  the  period,  see  Reyher,  Lea  Masques  Anglais,  313  ff., 
F.  A.  Foster,  Dumb  Show  in  Eliz.  Drama  before  1620,  Eng.  Stud.,  44,  pp.  8-17. 

"  Children  of  the  Chapel,  p.  119.  Since  the  paragraph  above  was  written  the  new 
discoveries  regarding  the  earlier  Blackfriars  have  been  made,  and  Professor  Wallace's 
Evolution  of  the  English  Drama  has  been  published. 


82   THE   COURT    AND   THEATRES   DURING   THE   REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH 

please  the  frequenters  of  theatres  are  "Gearish  apparell,  maskes 
vanting,  tumbling,  daunsing  of  gigges,  galiardes,  morices,  hobbi- 
horses. ' '  ®^  And  evidence  of  masque  influence  is  surely  to  be  de- 
tected in  Greene's  James  IV,  V,  2;  Romeo  and  Juliet;  Love's 
Labour  Lost,  V,  2;  Spanish  Tragedy,  I,  3;  Death  of  Robert  Earl  of 
Huntington,  II,  2. 

The  "hunting  scene",  practiced  at  an  early  date  to  appeal  to 
the  Queen 's  fondness  for  the  chase ;  ^^  the  echo  ^*  and  the  singing 
of  birds  ^'^  as  theatrical  devices ;  the  dancing  of  nymphs  and  the 
flying  of  gods  and  goddesses — all  these  things  are  at  least  heard  of 
first  in  connection  with  court  entertainments ;  and  before  1603 
they  had  all  made  their  appearance  upon  the  regular  stages.  They 
do  not  necessarily  show  court  influence,  to  be  sure,  but  they  are  of 
service  in  showing  that  the  people  of  the  day  were  receiving  some- 
thing else  besides  sword  play  and  tumbling,  and  that  the  managers 
of  the  time  were  exerting  their  ingenuity  and  income  to  present 
from  whatever  sources  possible  effects  and  devices  that  would  take 
with  their  London  audiences.  And  what  if  the  hobbyhorse  was 
not  forgot,  or  noise  and  buffoonery  remained  attractive  1  This  does 
not  prove  a  taste  essentially  different  from  that  at  court,  where 
grotesque  dances,  elownage,  tumbling,  sword-play  (of  a  more  re- 
fined sort,  perhaps)  and  even  bear-baiting  were  apparently  relished 
throughout  the  century. 

*2  Hazlitt,  Drama  and  Stage,  p.  192.  On  Masques  in  plays,  see  Reyher,  Lea  Masquet 
Anglais,  pp.  315  fif.,  497-98;  Symond's  Shakespeare's  Predecessors,  p.  254;  Brotanek, 
Eng.  Maskenspiele,  pp.  98-100;  Collier,  Annals,  1,  24;  Thorndike,  Pub.  Mod.  Lang.  Ass'n., 
VIII,  pp.  114-120;  Rena  May  Odell,  The  Masques  in  Shakespeare's  Plays  (Master's 
Diss.,  Univ.  of  Chicago,   1911. 

•  *3  Cf.  Cal.  State  Papers,  Spanish,  1558-67,  pp.  466,  609,  672 ;  ibid.,  1568-79,  pp. 
410,  497,  531,  533,  697;  Laneham's  account  of  Kenilworth  entertainments,  Nichols, 
Prog,  of  Eliz.,  1,  pp.   12,    14. 

**  For  echo  in  dramatic  and  non-dramatic  literature,  cf.  Baskervill,  Eng.  Elements  in 
Jonson's  Comedy,  p.  246;  Reyher,  p.  168;  Ward,  Hist.  Dram.  Lit.,  I,  417;  Creizenach, 
Geschichte,  IV,  397;  Greg,  Pastoral  Poetry,  pp.  199,  343-44,  etc.  Cf.  especially  the 
burlesque  of  the  device  in  Narcissits  and  Returne  from  Parnassus   (Pt.  II),  II,   2. 

"*  Perhaps  this  device  should  not  be  mentioned  here.  I  have  found  only  one  case 
of  it  before  1603  in  public  theatres.  Possibly  it  was  a  specialty  of  the  choir  boys.  A 
passage  in  Dekker's  description  of  James  I's  entry  seems  to  indicate  that  the  chirping  of 
birds  was  sometimes  represented  by  more  complex  instruments  than  "pot  birds".  In 
one  pageant,  he  writes,  a  song  was  sung  "to  a  loude  and  excellent  musicke,  composed 
of  violins,  and  another  rare  artificiall  instrument,  wherein,  besides  sundrie  severall  sounds 
eflfused  (all  at  one  time),  were,  also  sensibly  distinguisht  the  chirpings  of  birds". 
(Prog,  of  Eliz.,  Ill,  64-5).  The  frequency  of  bird  songs  and  the  echo  at  court  per- 
formances seems  to  indicate  that  the  devices  were  used  to  heighten  the  effects  of  wood 
settings  rather  than  to  take  their  place   (cf.  Monkemeyer,  Prolegomena,  82). 


COURT  INFLUENCE  IN  GENERAL  83 

"We  all  agree  that  the  costumes  worn  by  AUeyn  and  Burbage 
in  their  public  performances  were  often  elaborate  and  costly.  In- 
stead of  attributing  the  purchase  of  these  garments  entirely  to  the 
vanity  of  the  actors  or  a  desire  to  replace  painted  scenery  by 
gorgeous  apparel,  one  may  well  ask  if  the  necessity  of  appearing  at 
court  in  appropriate  and  acceptable  costume  had  anything  to  do 
with  the  buying  of  these  same  costly  garments. 

Maas  ^^  and  Mrs.  Helmholz-Phelan  ^^  write  that  in  performances 
at  court  all  the  costumes  and  properties  were  furnished  to  the 
regular  players  by  the  Revels  Office.  This,  however,  was  certainly 
not  always  the  case,  especially  in  the  latter  part  of  Elizabeth's 
reign. 

At  an  early  period  it  seems  that  the  costumes  of  regular  players 
were  sometimes  used  at  court  performances.  One  of  the  questions 
in  the  Rastell-Walton  lawsuit  of  cir.  1530  reads:  "Item,  Whether 
about  3  or  4  years  now  past,  about  which  time  the  King's  great 
banquet  was  at  Greenwich,  which  this  deponent  saw,  the  said  gar- 
ments were  occupied  there,  some  in  divers  stage-plays  and  inter- 
ludes, by  the  letting  to  hire  by  Walton,  as  it  was  reported,  and  at 
that  time  they  were  fresh  and  new,  and  seemed  little  the  worse  for 
any  wearing  of  them  before. "^^  In  the  charges  of  the  King's 
Revels  (38  Henry  VIII)  occurs  the  entry:  "To  the  king's  pleyers, 
in  rewards  for  loan  of  garments,  5s. ' '  "^ 

Numerous  later  payments  indicate  that  players  at  court  fur- 
nished at  least  part  of  their  equipment.  On  February  22,  1573, 
"Therle  of  Leicester's  Players"  were  paid  £6  13s.  4d.  for  a  play 
on  February  20,  ' '  and  further  by  waye  of  Her  Majesties  reward  for 
such  charges  as  they  had  been  at  in  the  furniture  of  the  same 
66.8."  ^'^  On  February  11,  1578,  a  payment  was  made  to  the  same 
company  "for  making  their  repaire  to  the  Courte  wth  their  whole 
company  and  furniture  to  presente  a  play  before  her  Matie."    In 

^  Geschichte  der  Theatertruppen,  p.   263. 

^Pub.  Hod.  Lang.  Ass'71.,  XVII,  194. 

■*  Pollard,  Fifteenth  Century  Prose  and  Verse,  p.  314. 

^  Kempe,  Loseley  Manuscripts,  p.  71.  Of.  also  Archaeologia,  XVIII,  333,  and  Col- 
lier's comment,  Annals,  1,  118,  note.  Not  very  clear  is  the  letter  of  John  Husse  to  Lady 
Lisle  on  April  7,  1539,  stating  that  players'  garments  in  his  possession  had  been  damaged 
by  the  wet  and  "by  your  command  I  am  bound  in  10£  for  it"  {Letters  and  Papers  of 
Henry  VIII,  XIV,  Pt.  1,  p.  350). 

0"  Stopes,  Wm.  Hunnis,  p.  320. 


84   THE    COURT   AND    THEATRES    DURING   THE   REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH 

"consideration  of  their  cliardgies  for  that  purpose,"  they  received 
£6  13s.  4d.,  but  not  the  "more  reward,"  because  their  play  was 
not  presented.^^  Under  a  warrant  dated  April  20,  1603,  twenty 
pounds  are  given  John  Hemynges  and  the  rest  of  his  company  '  *  for 
their  paines  and  expences"  for  two  plays  before  Her  Majesty;  and 
on  April  22,  of  the  same  year  Alleyn  and  his  company  are  granted 
thirty  pounds  ' '  for  their  paynes  and  expences ' '  in  presenting  three 
plays  before  the  Queen.^- 

Various  entries  in  Henslowe's  Diary  refer  to  garments,  etc., 
bought  for  court  performances.  On  January  8,  1597-8,  30s.  were 
lent  to  the  company  ' '  when  they  fyrst  played  dido  at  nyght ; ' '  and 
under  January  3,  occurs  the  entry,  "Layd  owte  for  copr  lace  for 
the  littell  boye  &  for  a  valle  for  the  boye  a  geanste  the  playe  of 
dido  &  eneus."^^  On  January  2,  1600,  Wm.  Bird  was  lent  20s. 
' '  for  divers  thinges  a  bout  the  playe  of  f ayeton  for  the  corte " ;  ** 
and  on  December  25,  1601,  13s.  were  lent  at  the  appointment  of 
the  company  to  ' '  the  lettell  tayller ' '  to  buy  ' '  taff ty  sasenet  to  macke 
a  payer  of  hosse  for  nycke  to  tumbell  in  be  fore  the  quen."  ^^  John 
Thare  was  lent  10s.  on  January  1,  1602,  "to  geve  unto  mrs.  calle 
for  ii  curenets  for  bed  tyers  for  the  corte."  ^^ 

Some  of  the  Revels  Accounts  speak  of  plays  being  "thoroughly 
furnished"  in  the  office.  Others  speak  of  them  as  being  provided 
with  "divers"  or  "sondrey"  things.®'^  In  view  of  what  has  pre- 
ceded, this  distinction  in  phraseology  is  probably  of  some  signifi- 
cance. 

Such  entries  as  the  following  are  common  in  Feuillerat's  Docu- 
ments of  the  Revels:  "For  a  carr  to  cary  stuff  for  the  Erie  of  War- 
vrick  his  men."  But  such  references  as  this  also  occur:  "For  the 
Cariadge  of  the  Erie  of  Warwick  his  mens  stuffe  from  the  Revelles 
to  Whitehall  and  back  again."  It  is  possible,  therefore,  that  all 
such  entries  refer  to  the  carriage  of  Revels  property.     One  entry, 

"  E.  K.  Chambers,  Mod.  Lang.  Review,  II,  6. 

•^  Cunningham,  Extracts,  p.  XXXIV.  For  similar  payments  for  "Pains  and  ex- 
penses", see  p.  XXXV. 

"Ed.  Greg,  1,  83.  Perhaps  reference  to  "dido  at  nyght"  not  a  reference  to  a 
court  performance.     Cf.  C.  W.  Wallace,  Eng.  Stud.,  XLIII,  p.  377. 

•*/btd.,  p.   125,    (cf.  payment  on  Jan.   26,    1598-9,  p.   83). 

«/btd.,  p.   152. 

"^  Ibid.,  p.  186.  Note  in  this  connection  the  various  other  entries  during  December, 
January  and  February,  as  for  example,  pp.   115,   151,   183,   186,   70,   80. 

"  Cf.  e.  g.,  Doc.  of  Bevels,  ed.  Feuillerat,  pp.  286,  320-21. 


COURT  INFLUENCE  IN  GENERAL  85 

however,  should  be  cited  here.  It  reads :  ' '  For  the  Cariadge  of  the 
partes  of  ye  well  counterfeit  from  the  Bell  in  gracious  strete  to 
St.  Johns  to  be  performed  for  the  play  of  Cutwell. ' '  ^^ 

This  entry  looks  as  though  the  properties  of  regular  companies 
were  being  used  at  court.  Fleay  *^  identifies  Cutivell  with  the 
Irish  Knight,  one  of  the  plays  presented  at  Court  between  Febru- 
ary 12,  1577,  and  the  21  of  the  following  February.  Feuillerat,^" 
however,  thinks  that  it  was  not  one  of  the  nine  plays  acted  between 
those  dates,  and  that  the  carriage  of  the  well  to  St.  Johns  points 
to  the  rehearsal  of  a  play  that  was  not  accepted  for  court  presen- 
tation. Be  this  as  it  may,  the  entry  shows  that  the  property  of  a 
regular  company  was  at  least  used  in  court  rehearsals,  and  that 
its  carriage  was  being  paid  for  by  the  Revels  Office.  The  cloud  ^^ 
which  was  probably  borrowed  from  a  public  theatre  and  which  was 
set  up  again  where  it  was  borrowed  has  already  been  mentioned. 

In  connection  with  the  evidence  above,  we  should  take  into  con- 
sideration the  economy  of  Lord  Burghley  and  the  growing  parsi- 
mony of  Elizabeth.  From  the  year  1573,  when  Burgley  undertook 
to  reform  matters,  the  yearly  expenditure  for  court  entertainments 
steadily  decreases,  1580-81  being  exceptional  as  a  result  of  the 
special  amusements  provided  for  the  Duke  of  Alencon.  On  Oc- 
tober 31,  1596,  the  Master  of  the  Revels  was  allowed  £66  6s.  8d. 
for  "defraying  the  ordinary  charges  and  services  within  that 
office. ' '  ^^  That  this  amount  was  not  increased  in  the  following 
years  is  shown  by  the  statements  printed  on  pages  398-404  of 
Feuillerat's  Documents  of  the  Revels.  The  number  of  plays,  how- 
ever, did  not  decrease ;  '^^  nor  is  there  any  special  reason  for  be- 
lieving that  they  were  less  elaborately  presented  than  the  plays  of 
the  years  immediately  preceding.  The  regular  companies,  who  had 
waxed  so  rich  that  they  could  now  build  stately  houses,  provided 
more  of  their  own  ' '  furniture. ' '  '^* 

These  "sundry  thinges"  furnished  by  the  regular  companies 

»*Ibid.,   277. 

"» Biog.  Chron.,  II,  289. 

''ODoc.   of  Bevels,  p.   461. 

"^Jbid.,   p.    308. 

'"'Doc.   of  Revels,  p.   397. 

73  Fleay,  Hist,  of  Stage,  pp.   121  ff. ;   ChamberB,  Mod.  Lang.  Review,  II,  pp.   7  S. 

'*  Feuillerat,  Bureau  des  Menus-Plaisirs,  p.  44. 


86   THE   COURT    AND   THEATRES    DURING   THE   REIGN   OF   ELIZABETH 

could  not  have  differed  materially  from  those  provided  by  the  Revels 
Office;  and  in  both  instances  there  are  good  reasons  for  believing 
that  these  Elizabethans  were  more  painstaking  in  their  attempts  at 
coleur  locale  than  they  are  sometimes  given  credit  for  being.  Glar- 
ing anachronisms  in  dress  as  in  other  particulars  are  of  course  to 
be  found,  but  there  is  considerable  evidence  to  show  that  in  many 
cases  the  theatrical  people  of  the  time  were  extremely  careful  in 
providing  appropriate  costume,  distinctive  and  suggestive  dress. 
To  what  extent  the  more  advanced  methods  employed  at  court 
affected  the  public  theatre,^^  it  is  impossible  to  say ;  still  it  is  per- 
haps worthy  of  remark  that  the  very  characters  who  were  favorites 
at  court — Mercury,  Cupid,  Iris,  for  example — seem  to  have  been 
dressed  in  an  exceptionally  fitting  manner  at  the  public  theatres. 
At  least  I  am  unable  to  agree  with  Reyher  who  concludes  an  ex- 
cellent chapter  on  court  costume  with  the  words : 

"Les  comediens  des  theatres  publics  n'attachaient  d 'import- 
ance qu'a  la  richesse  de  leurs  vetements,  sans  se  preoccuper  de 
savior  s'ils  etaient  appropries  aux  roles  qu'ils  devaient  jouer.  lis 
recevaient  des  grands  leurs  habillements  d'apparat;  laquais  et 
soubrettes  leur  vendaient  les  defroques  demodees  ou  fripees  de  leurs 
maitres,  et  les  acteurs,  se  pavanant  sur  la  scene  dans  ces  beaux 
atours,  se  contentaient  de  jeter  de  la  poudre  aux  yeux  de  leurs 
humbles  admirateurs. " 

For  reasons  already  given,  this  comment  seems  hardly  just. 
Th'at  actors  sometimes  secured  costumes  in  the  manner  stated  above 
is  true  enough,  but  a  glance  at  Henslowe's  Diary  is  sufficient  to 
show  that  it  was  not. the  usual  practice. 

I' am  not  one  of  those  who  'Taboriously  attempt"  to  show  that 
Shakspere  dressed  his  Romans  in  the  costume  of  Caesar 's  day.  Nor 
do  I  intend  to  discuss  here  the  matter  of  Elizabethan  stage  costume. 
I  will  say,  however,  that  in  certain  performances  at  least  the  actors 
were  not  only  careful  about  the  costumes  of  their  nymphs,  shep- 

"  The  absence  of  Revels  Accounts  corresponding  to  the  years  covered  in  Henslowe's 
Diary  renders  it  impossible  to  say  vrhether  the  tailors,  costumers,  etc.,  working  at  court 
were  the  same  as  those  working  for  public  actors.  And  if  it  could  be  established  that 
they  were  the  same,  this  would  prove  nothing  one  way  or  the  other.  It  is  of  some 
interest  to  know,  however,  that  John  Ogle,  who  frequently  provided  beards  for  court 
performances,  also  had  as  customers  the  professional  actors  of  the  day  (Sir  Thomas 
More,  Pub.  Sh.  Soc,  III,  p.  59).  Wm.  Stone,  mercer,  also  occupied  a  similar  position 
(Doc.   of  Revels,  pp.   346,   353,   368;   Henslowe's  Diary,   I,    146;    II,   313). 


COURT  INFLUENCE  IN  GENERAL  87 

herds,  gods  and  goddesses,  their  Fame's  and  Nobody's,  but  were 
inclined  to  distinguish  the  habits  of  their  Moors  and  Turks,  their 
Irish,  Italians  and  Scots.  Symbolic  colors,  suggestive  properties, 
fantastic  devices  were  resorted  to  in  an  endeavor  at  clearness  and 
differentiation.  Grotesque  and  conventional  dresses  are  frequently 
the  result;  yet  even  this,  it  seems  to  me,  is  of  some  value  in  showing 
that  considerable  care  was  being  manifested  with  respect  to  personal 
appearance. 

And  in  some  of  their  methods  they  are  striMfagly  modern. 
Masks,  it  is  often  said,  were  frequently  used;  yet  the  art  of  make- 
up was  not  entirely  unknown.  "Glue"  for  beards,  for  example, 
"sunne-burnt  hands,"  a  make-up  capable  of  being  defaced  by  the 
sun  and  perspiration  are  not  unheard  of  in  Shakspere's  day.  A 
picture  frame  stage  with  its  attendant  illusion,  and  Belasco-like 
preciseness  in  details  of  presentation  were  of  course  undreamed  of 
in  Elizabeth's  reign.  Ornament  and  pageantry,  however,  theatrical 
devices  as  aids  to  the  imagination,  the  power  of  suggestion,  the 
possibilities  that  lie  in  sounds  on  and  off  the  stage  as  aids  to  illusion, 
and  the  hidden  causes  of  strange  effects  that  rise  from  "hell"  or 
fall  from  "heaven"  are  by  no  means  modern  discoveries. 

In  the  practice  of  such  things  it  is  obvious,  too,  that  all  the 
ingenuity  of  sixteenth  century  England  was  not  being  confined 
to  the  performances  before  the  Queen.  Some  of  the  methods  em- 
ployed at  court  could  not  be  easily  and  profitably  introduced  upon 
the  public  stages;  others  could  be  advantageously  employed  there. 
And  with  respect  to  such  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  the 
professional  actors  of  the  time  profited  by  what  they  saw  when 
they  rehearsed  before  the  Master  of  the  Revels  and  performed  be- 
fore Her  Majesty ;  that  during  the  years  when  their  very  existence 
depended  upon  their  connection  with,  and  their  ability  to  provide 
amusement  for,  Elizabeth  and  her  circle,  these  same  actors  and 
stage-managers  received  at  court  things  other  than  protection. 
Chief  among  these  were,  as  I  have  tried  to  show,  suggestions  for  the 
essential  elements  of  a  stage  flexible,  "painted,"  well-equipped. 


APPENDIX 

The  "Canopy  Stage/' 

The  word  "canopy"  (see  above)  has  been  used  to  distinguish 
from  ' '  alcove ' '  the  type  of  rear  stage  recently  discussed  by  Creizen- 
ach  and  others;  that  is,  a  recess  beneath  an  upper  stage  slightly 
projected  and  supported  at  the  front  by  two  pillars  resting  upon 
the  lower  stage  (See  above  and  Creizenach,  Geschichte,  TV,  430). 
Neuendorff  in  his  Die  englische  VolkshiiJine  regards  this  as  the 
type  of  stage  which  he  calls  the  fully  developed  form  in  the  public 
theatres.  Corresponding  to  it  in  the  private  theatres  was  the 
' '  alcove ' '  stage — a  distinction  for  which  I  see  no  grounds.  A  good 
deal,  however,  can  be  said  for  the  "canopy"  stage. 

Note  in  this  connection:  (1)  The  Roxana  picture  does  not 
speak  against  it,  whereas  the  Messallina  picture  certainly  seems  to 
suggest  it  (cf.  Neuendorff,  pp.  28,  29,  140-143,  145-146;  J.  Q. 
Adams,  Jr.,  Journal  of  Eyig.  and  Germ.  Philology,  April,  1911,  p. 
322)  ;  (2)  Two  extra  avenues  of  exit  and  entrance  are  provided 
with  the  curtains  closed;  (3)  The  "canopy"  of  Marston  and  Percy 
admirably  describes  such  a  structure;  (4)  If  we  assume  a  stage 
with  both  projecting  balcony  and  oblique  doors,  then  the  close- 
range  courting  in  The  Devil  Is  an  Ass,  II,  2,  can  be  staged  ex- 
cellently, although  such  an  arrangement  is  unnecessary  for  the 
scene  (cf.  Reynolds,  Mod.  Phil.,  IX,  63)  ;  (5)  Some  extra  space  is 
given  to  the  rear  stage;  (6)  The  Hope  contract,  which  expressly 
states  that  the  "heavens"  are  not  to  be  supported  by  pillars,  also 
states  that  turned  columns  are  to  be  upon  the  stage;  (7)  Posts,  in 
addition  to  the  front  pillars,  are  implied  in  the  words  of  the 
Fortune  contract,  ' '  Saveinge  only  that  all  the  princypall  and  maine 
postes  of  the  saide  frame,  and  stadge  forward  shall  be  square," 
etc.  And  the  posts  occasionally  called  for  in  the  action  of  plays 
were  in  some  cases  at  least  the  posts  supporting  the  upper  stage 
rather  than  the  pillars  supporting  the  "shadow."  Two  Angry 
Women,  sc.  xi,  Spanish  Tragedy,  III,  1,  Three  Lords  and  Three 
Ladies,  p.  500,  are  not  clear.  In  Friar  Bacon,  sc.  xi,  however,  it  is 
pretty  certain  that  the  post  against  which  Miles  strikes  his  head 
is  near  the  brazen  head  on  the  rear  stage,  and  is  not  the  pillar  at 
the  front  of  the  stage.     Nor  were  posts  on  the  stage  confined  to 


APPENDIX  89 

public  theatres,  as  is  shown  in  IV,  3,  of  Day's  Humour  Out  of 
Breath  (pub.  1608,  as  "Divers  times  latelie  acted  by  the  children 
of  the  Kings  Kevells"),  where  Horatio  courts  Florinel's  glove 
pinned  to  a  post.  The  probability  that  the  rear  stage  grew  out  of 
structures  to  represent  interiors  on  the  court  stage  may  perhaps  be 
suggested  as  a  final  bit  of  e^ddence  in  favor  of  Creizenach  's  idea. 

The  possible  objection  that  a  curtain  suspended  a  few  feet 
beyond  the  line  of  the  tiring-house  would  be  difficult  to  manage  is 
of  little  weight.  "We  need  not  worry  about  the  inability  of  these 
Elizabethans  to  manage  curtains.  They  were  used  to  managing 
them.  The  expression  in  the  Revels  Account  for  1578-9  (Feuillerat, 
p.  296)  is  suggestive:  "ffor  ii  Lynes  to  drawe  curtens  with — 
xii  d. ' '  Even  more  suggestive  is  the  device  used  by  Churchyard 
when  Queen  Elizabeth,  in  1578,  made  her  progress  into  Norfolk 
and  Suffolk.  A  large  hole  was  dug  in  which  music  and  nymphs 
were  stationed.  Covering  the  hole  was  a  "canvas  painted  greene 
like  the  grasse ;  and  at  everie  side  on  the  canvas  ran  a  string 
through  curteine  rings,  which  string  might  easilie  be  drawne  anie 
kind  of  waie,  by  reason  of  two  great  poales  that  laie  along  in  the 
ground,  and  answered  the  curteine  or  canvas  on  each  side  so  that 
dra^ving  a  small  cord  in  the  middle  of  the  canvas,  the  earth  would 
seem  to  open,  and  so  shut  againe  as  the  other  end  of  the  cord  was 
drawne  backward"  (Holinshed,  IV,-^  400),  There  is  no  especial 
reason  for  thinking  that  Churchyard  was  more  ingenious  than  Jas. 
Burbage  or  "Wm.  Shakspere, 

A  few  persons  in  the  side  boxes  and  groundlings  at  the  sides  of 
the  stage  could  perhaps  get  glimpses  of  things  behind  the  curtain, 
but  such  glimpses  are  not  unknown  today.  Is  it  the  inquisitiveness 
of  the  few  spectators  standing  at  the  sides  of  the  stage  that  is 
referred  to  in  Lady  Alimony  (before  1642)  :  "Be  your  stage 
curtains  artificially  drawn  and  so  covertly  shrouded  that  the 
squint-eyed  groundling  may  not  peek  in?"  And  is  it  to  Tarleton's 
habit  of  peeping  around  the  slightly  projecting  curtain  that 
Peacham  refers  in  Thalia's  Banquet  (1620)  : 

"As  Tarlton  when  his  head  was  onely  seene, 
The   Tire-house  doore  and   Tnpistrie   betweene. 
Set  all  the  multitude  in  such  a  laughter, 
They  could  not  hold   for  scarce  an  houre  after?" 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS  AND  TITLES 


Acolastus,  16. 

Adams,  J.  Q.,  Jr.,  88. 

Aglaura,  6. 

Albion  Knight,  60  n. 

Abraham  Sacrifant,  52  n. 

Albright,  V.  E.,  17,  22,  57  n.,  60  n., 

64,  67. 
Alexander  and  Campasbe,  62. 
All  Fools,  26  n. 
All  for  Money,  60  n. 
Alphonsus  of  Arragon,  12,  63,  67,  71. 
Antipodes,  25^ 

Antonio's  Revenge,  13  n.,  19. 
Apius  and  Virginia,  50  n. 
Apology  for  Actors,  16,  25,  69. 
Archer,  Wm.,  28. 
Arden  of  Feversham,  17  n.,  65,  66, 
Arraignment  of  Paris,  62. 
Astrologaster,  25. 
Astrophel  and  Stella,  23. 
As  You  Like  It,  63. 
Babington,   Bishop,  40  n. 

Baker,  G.  P.,  9  n.,  46,  48,  78,  79. 

Bale,  John,  60  n. 
Bang,  W.,  8. 
Bartholomew  Fair,  17  n. 
Battle  of  Alcazar,  19,  81. 

Belman  of  London,  68. 

Bereblock,  John,  44. 

Beza,  52  n. 

Blurt,  Master  Constable,  13  n. 

Bohun,  Edmund,  77  n. 

Brandl,  A.,  57  n.,  60  n. 

Brathwaite,  Rich.,  70. 

Brazen  Age,  13  n.,  25. 

Brome,  16,  25. 

Brooke,  Tucker,  43  n. 

Browne,   21. 

Bugbears,  51  n. 

Bussy  D'Ambois,  19. 

Calisto  and  Melibea,  50  n. 

Cambises,  53,  56. 

Careless  Shepherdess,  20. 

Carleton,  Sir  Dudley,  74. 


Castle  of  Perseverance,  64. 

Chamberlain,  John,  19,  22. 

Chambers,  E.  K.,  38. 

Chapman,  Geo.,  26  n. 

Character  of  Queen  Elizabeth,   77  n. 

Character    Writings    of    Seventeenth 

Century,  25. 
Child,  H.  H.,  28,  29,  34,  46. 
Churchyard,  Thos.,  89. 
Cohen,  G.,  47  n.,  52  n. 
Com,mon  Conditions,  62. 
Comodie   of  Bewtie   and  Huswyfery, 

50  n. 
Com,odie  or  Moral  devised  on  A  Oame 

of  Cardes,  51  n. 
Conflict  of  Conscience,  57  n. 
Corbin,  John,  9  n.,  22. 
Corey,  80. 

Coryat's  Crudeties,  68. 
Cotgrave,  J.,  23. 

Creizenach,  W.,  49,  56,  67  n.,  88. 
Cross,  69. 
Cunliflfe,  J.  W.,  57. 
Cut  well,  85. 

Cynthia's  Revels,  19,  79. 
Cypress  Grove  Walks,  20. 
Damon  and  Pithias,  52,  52  n.,  60. 
Daniel,  S.,  79  n. 
David  and  Bethsabe,  9  n.,  21. 
Day,  John,  20,  89. 
Death  of  Robert  Earl  of  Huntington, 

82. 
Dekker,  15,  26  n.,  62  n.,  68,   70,   72, 

76,  82  n. 
Devil  Is  An  Ass,  88. 
Development    of    SJiakesfpeare    as    a 

Dramatist,  9  n. 
Disobedient  Child,  53,  60  n. 
Drake,   79. 
Drayton,  M.,  68. 

Drummond  of  Hawthorndon,  20. 
Durand,  44  n.,  45,  46. 
Dux  Maraud,  60  n. 
Early  London  Theatres,  29. 


INDEX  OF  AUTHORS  AND  TITLES 


91 


Eastward  Hoe,  11,  13  n. 

Edward  IV,  18,  20. 

Edwards,  Rich.,  44,  52. 

Endymion,  19,  62. 

Englische    Volksbiihne   im  Zeitalter 

Shakespeares,  4. 
Englysshe  Maneyne,  16. 
England's  Joy,  70,  77. 
Ev.  B.,  68. 

Every  Man  in  his  Humor,  12. 
Faery  Pastorall,  12. 
Fair  Maid  of  the  Exchange,  75  n. 
Feuillerat,  A.,  1  n.,  2,  9  n.,  54  n.,  24 

n.,  84,  85. 
Fleay,  F.  G.,  34,  35  n.,  67  n.,  85. 
Flecknoe,  35,  36,  80. 
Florio,  John,  15,  16,  17. 
Ford,  John,  21. 
Four  Elements,  60  n. 
Four  Prentices  of  London,  13  n. 
Four  P's,  60  n. 
Fraunce,  A.,  51   n.,   66. 
Friar  Bacon  and  FiHar  Bungay,  64, 

88. 
Gallathea.  62. 

Gammer  Gurton's  Needle,  50,  54,  60. 
Gascoigne,  Geo.,  50,  56. 
George-a-Green£,  67. 
Gesta  Grayorum,  44. 
Gismond  of  Salerne,  58,  60,  66. 
Glass  of  Government,  51  n.,  52,  56. 
Godly  Queen  Hester,  8,  57. 
God's  Promises,  60  n. 
Golding,  52  n. 
Gorboduc,  52,  57. 
Gosson,  Stephen,  23,  69,  81. 
Greg,  W.  "W.,  8,  17  n.,  79  n. 
Greene,  Robt.,  12,  63,  67,  71,  82. 
Grindal,  40  n. 
Halliwell,  J.  O.,  34. 
Harrison,  Robt.,  36. 
Harvey,  Gabriel,  69,   79. 
Helmholz-Phelan,  Mrs.,  80  n.,  83. 
Henslmve's  Diary,  69,  84,  86,  86  n. 
Henry  VI,  25. 
Henry  VIII,  11. 
Hentzner,  42. 


HejTv-ood,  John,  60  n. 

Hey  wood,   Thos.,   16,   20,   25,   69,   74, 

75  n. 
History  of  Knight  in  Burning  Bock, 

56  n. 
History  of  Love  and  ffortune,  56  n. 
Histriomastix,  17  n. 
Holiday,  25  n. 

Holinshed,  R.,  24  n.,  45,  89. 
Holyoke,  Thos.,  14. 
Horestes,  55,  61. 
Howe,  34,  36,  43. 
Hughes,  Thos.,  57. 
Humour  out  of  Breath,  20,  89. 
Hyckescorner,  60  n. 
Hymenaei,  27,  72. 
Hymenaeus,  51  n. 

//  This  Be  not  a  Good  Play,  13  n.,  16. 
//  You  Enow  Not  Me,  67. 
Impatient  Poverty,  60  n. 
Ingeland,  John,  53. 
Irish  Knight,  85. 
Jack  Juggler,  50. 
James  IV,  81,  82. 
Jocasta,  51  n.,  52. 
Johan  Johan,  57,  57  n.,  66. 
John  a  Kent  and  John  a  Cumber,  71, 

76. 
Jusserand,  J.  J.,  59  n. 
John  the  Baptist,  60  n. 
Jonson,  Ben,  1,  10,  26,  68,  69,  72,  73. 
Joviall  Crete,  16. 
King  Danns,  60. 
King  Johan,  60  n. 
Knack  to  Know  an  Honest  Man,  65", 

81. 
Lady  Alimony,  89. 
Lawrence,  W.  J.,  9  n.,  48,  49,  51  n., 

53  n. 
Legge,  Thos.,  9. 
Lemazurier,  67  n. 
Liberality  and  Prodigality,  62. 
Like  Will  to  Like,  60  n. 
Locrine,  81. 

Looking  Glass  for  London,  19,  75,  76. 
Longer  Thou  Livest,  50  n. 
Lord  Cromwell,  18,  64  n.,  66. 


92   THE    COURT   AND   THEATRES   DURING   THE    REIGN    OP    ELIZABETH 


Lost  Lady,  18  n. 

Love,  60  n. 

Love  Feigned  and  Unfeigned,  60  n. 

Love's  Labour  Lost,  82. 

Loves  Metamorphosis,  62,  79. 

Love's  Sacrifice,  21. 

Lupton,  Donald,  71. 

Lusty  Juventus,  60  n. 

Lyiy,  John,  58,  62. 

Maas,  36  n.,  83. 

Magnificence,  60  n. 

Malone,  Edmund,  1,  32,  48. 

Mankind,  44  n.,  57  n. 

Marlowe,  9  n.,  81. 

Marriage  of  Wit  and  Science,  54,  55, 

60  n. 
Marriage  of  Wit  and  Wisdom,  63. 
Mary  Magdalene,  57  n. 
Marston,  John,  12,  16,  88. 
Masque  of  Blackness,  74,  80. 
Masque  of  Flowers,  80. 
Maydes  Metamorphosis,  62,  63. 
Midas,  62. 

Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  62,  63. 
Milton,  John,  25. 

Mind,  Will  and  Understanding ,  60  n. 
Misfortunes  of  Arthur,  52,  57. 
Misogomus,  58,  60,  66. 
Monday,  A.,  66. 
Monster  Lately  Found  Out,  34. 
Morgan,  Appleton,  39,  48. 
Morley,  John,  25. 
Moryson,  Fynes,  70. 
Mother  Bombie,  64  n. 
Mucedorus,  61,  63. 
Mutius  Sceuola,  50  n. 
Narcissus,  71,  75. 
Nash,  Thos.,  9  n.,  23,  25,  69. 
Neuendorff,  B.,  1  n.,  3,  4,  6,  7,  11,  12, 

17,  19,  21,  22,  29  n.,  30,  31,  67  n., 

74,  75  n.,  78,  88. 
New  Custom,  50  n.,  60  n. 
News  from  Hell,  26  n. 
Nice  Wanton,  57  n. 
Nobody  and  Somebody,  64  n. 
Novella,  21. 
Old  Wives  Tale,  58,  64  n. 


Ordish,  T.  F.,  29,  39. 

Orlando  Furioso,  61,  63. 

Palamon  and  Arcyte,  44. 

Palsgrave,  John,  16,  27. 

Pardoner  and  Friar,  60  n. 

Pastorall  of  Phillyda  mid  Choryn,  9  n. 

Patient  Orissell,  62. 

Peacham,  89. 

Peake,  Robt.,  51  n. 

Pedler's  Prophecy,  60. 

Peele,  Geo.,  62. 

Pericles,  19. 

Percy,  Wm.,  12,  14,  16,  17,  62  n.,  88. 

Peters,  Nicholas,  24. 

Phillips,  John,  62. 

Pinciano,  51  n. 

Plautus,  50. 

Plaie  of  the  Burnyng  Knight,  27. 

Playe  of  fayeton,  84. 

Play  of  Plays,  23. 

Play  of  Thomas  Stucley,  25,  73. 

Play  of  Wyt  and  Science,  55,  61. 

Plays  Confuted,  69,  81. 

Portio  and  Demorantes,  53. 

Prynne,  Wm.,  34. 

Queen  Dido,  9  n.,  62,  84. 

R.  M.,  25. 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  20. 

Ralph  Roister  Doister,  50,  60. 

Rare  Triumphs  of  Love  and  Fortune, 

61. 
Rawlidge,  34,  35. 
Redford,  John,  55,  61. 
Remains  after  Death,  70. 
Rendle,  41. 
Rennert,  H.  A.,  37  n. 
Respublica,  60  n. 

Reyher,  P.,  2,  9  n.,  17  n.,  45  n.,  86. 
Reynolds,  G.  F.,  1  n.,  11,  13  n.,  17  n., 

18,  19,  21,  26  n.,  28,  64,  65,  67  n., 

75  n.,  88. 
Ricardus  Tertius,  9. 
^  Rigal,  E.,  58  n. 
Roaring  Girl,  17  n. 
Romeo  and  Juliet,  67,  82. 
Rye,  W.  B.,  42. 
San  Heremenegildo,  59  n. 


INDEX  OP  AUTHORS  AND  TITLES 


93 


Sapho  and  Phao,  58,  65. 

Schelling,  F.  E.,  1  n.,  78. 

Second  and  Third  Blast  of  Rttrait,  69. 

Sejarms,  68. 

Serlio,  S.,  51  n. 

Shakspere,  1,  76,  89. 

Shakspermn  Stage,  22. 

Shirley,  John,  54  n. 

Shoemaker  a  Gentleman,  18  n. 

Sidney,  Sir  Philip,  1,  63,  73. 

Sir  Clyoman  and  Sir  Clymades,  19,  63. 

Sir  John  Oldcastle,  66. 

Sir  Thomas  More,  57  n. 

Sophinisba,  12. 

Spanish  Tragedy,  82,  88. 

Spenser,  E.,   68,  79. 

Spinelli,  45. 

Steevens,  George,  1,  10. 

Stockwood,  J.,  35,  36,  68. 

Story  of  Pompey,  58. 

Stowe,  J.,  43. 

Stuart,  D.  C,  52  n. 

Suckling,  Sir  John,  6. 

Sun's  Darling,  9  n. 

Supposes,  50. 

Tamer  Cam,  81. 

Tamburlaine,  74,  75. 

Tancred  and  Oismunda,  9  n.,  19. 

Tarleton,  R.,  35. 

Tatham,  J.,  19. 

Tears  of  the  Muses,  68. 

Technogamia,  25  n. 

Temperance  and  Humility,  60  n. 

Terence,  50. 

Tethys  Festivall,  79  n. 


Thalia's  Banquet,  89. 

Thersites,  52. 

Three  Laws,  60  n. 

Three  Lords  of  London,  66,  81. 

Three    Lords    and    Three    Ladies    of 

London,  88. 
Tide  Tarrieth  No  Man,  60  n. 
Tom  Tyler,  60. 
Trial  of  Treasure,  60  n. 
Troublesome  Reign  of  King  John,  25. 
Two  Angry   Women  of  Abington,  88. 
Two  Italian  Gentlemen,  66. 
Tioo  Tragedies  in  One,  57  n. 
Varian,  George,  22. 
Vennor,  R.,  70,  77. 
Vertues  Commonwealth,  69. 
Victoria,  51  n.,  66. 
Vitruvius,  51  n. 
Wager,  W.,  50  n. 
WaUace,  C.  W.,  28,  41,  81. 
Wapul,  G.,  60  n. 
Wars  of  Cyrus,  62,  81. 
Wealth  and  Health,  60  n. 
Weever,  John,  28,  68. 
Wegener,  R.,  57. 
Wether,  60  n. 
What  You  Will,  12. 
White,  Thos.,  68. 
Whore  of  Babylon,  9  n. 
Wit  and  Witless,  60  n. 
Witte  and  Will,  55. 
Woman  in  the  Moon,  25  n.,  62. 
Woman  Killed  with   Kindness,  75   n. 
Youth,  50  n. 


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